Plato

By Adilkhan Tuleubayev

Drawing from Book VI of the Republic (pp. 154-160), Plato used the Allegory of the Cave (Book VII, pp. 160-161) as an ultimate example to illustrate the importance of the good discussed before and to eloquently conclude his line of thought. Although he never exactly said what the Good was, his representation of its functions and existence adequately compensated for this minor shortcoming. The following essay aims to analyze the passage by synthesizing its main ideas and incorporating them into the broader framework of Plato’s philosophy.

For Plato, the rigorous dichotomy between the visible and the intelligible realms was always central to his views as philosopher, particularly in the case of the good. The common citizens of ancient Greece, as was mentioned in Book VI, often tended to regard the good as something material that can be touched; therefore they praised beauty and deemed pleasure as the example of the good. Plato’s argument was that their position was false as the good was intelligible and could not be explained by the visible. Here comes another important aspect to grasp from Plato’s philosophy: the existence of Forms – Ideals. To him, the true was what did not change. Opinions change, beliefs change, but forms – or ideas - do not as they are universal. Nor are they divisible and could be represented in the material form. The people of ancient Greece were considered by him to be obsessed with that which changes over time; since the forms were universal, the people mistakenly called all beautiful things the good things and took opinions for ideas.

The distraction in the face of the material, according to him, always proved an obstacle for the intelligible part to be fully grasped. However, if p...

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...a of certain things still remain even with the birth of a person as the soul gains experience. With birth people do not forget those ideas altogether, but have difficulty to remember. They discover the way towards the good only through education which is in essence a process of recollection.

To conclude, the message Plato tried to convey in the Allegory of the Cave was that the good is not only what people inherently pursue, but also which guides them to do certain things. Whether one achieves the full understanding of the good is a matter of constant education, which might take much time and, mostly, lead only to the partial success due to the distraction on part of the material realm. Even without fully attaining the realm of Forms, a person who tries until the very moment of death will achieve a healthy soul and enjoy its benefits in the underworld and beyond.