Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”

In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato relates a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, where Socrates puts forth his beliefs on the nature of enlightenment, education, and what makes a good leader. To achieve this purpose, Plato, through the voice of Socrates, describes a cave where people live their entire lives chained up, only able to view a wall upon which shadows created by the movement of people and objects outside the cave are shown. This limited view, according to Socrates, is their reality and truth: they have no awareness of any other way of life much less the nature of the world itself. These prisoners represent the unenlightened and uneducated – the majority of the people.

After a time, one of the prisoners is released and exposed to the outer world, resulting at first in great confusion and physical pain. At first, Socrates states, the released prisoner (the newly educated man) will view the new world through the lens of the old: only able to understand the new in how it relates to the old. Over time, the new reality will become the truth to the released prisoner and the old reality (the cave) becomes small, limited, and false. Once exposed to the larger world and greater understanding of the reality of the world at large, they would pity those left behind and desire to return to their former world and educate the prisoners they left behind. Upon returning to the old world, however, the former prisoner, having lost the skills previously needed in the cave, would not be able to compete with his old comrades as he did before. The imprisoned would view his new knowledge and ideas with ridicule and pity. The imprisoned would believe that the returned prisoner is “proof” that one should not leave, much less even think of leaving the cave.

This represents Socrates’ belief that it is the responsibility of the enlightened man to educate as many others as possible – to pull as many out of the cave as he can. The only way to do this, however, is to retain the skills necessary to live in the cave and return there occasionally. By returning to the old cave occasionally, it also serves the purpose of preventing the enlightened world from becoming a cave, albeit a larger, brighter one. Through this metaphor, Socrates represents his view of the lives and beliefs of the majority of people and uses it to put forth his idea that the best leaders should be able to live in both worlds: that of the educated and that of the uneducated.

Written for Professor Stephenson's English Composition II class at Pikes Peak Community College, 15th June 2004

Research Proposal: Our Backwards Approach to Marriage and Divorce

In several of Robert Heinlein’s future-fiction books, the author puts forth the concept of “Contract Marriage” – where people marry for a set period of time (i.e., 5 years, 20 years, etc.).  While the idea of predetermining the length of a marriage may be unrealistic in our society, the idea of requiring a marriage contract that covers issues such as assets, children, support, the termination of marriage, and premarital counseling is one that should be considered seriously today.