-Plato introduces the Allegory of the Cave in the dialogue when Socrates begins discussing with Glaucon (Plato's brother) why it is that a philosopher should be the ruler of his ideal city.
-What Plato means by this, BTW, is a "successful" philosopher, because obviously having someone like Socrates rule a city would be nonsense because nothing would get done, and Socrates knows this.
-A "successful" philosopher is someone who has successfully achieved gaining "knowledge".
-Socrates says that knowledge and belief are "powers", just like sight and hearing.
-Sight's "objects" are our eyes, our hearing "objects" are our ears, so what are knowledge and belief's "objects"?
-Knowledge concerns "what is", but belief concerns "what is" as well as "what is not".
-This seems to echo what Parmenides was always on about.
-Socrates says that the objects of knowledge are a completely separate realm of reality- "the Forms". Forms are separate from physical things in the world around us, as the physical things around us "are" and "are not".
-This concept connects with what Heraclitus was talking about as well, with his idea that everything is in a constant state of flux; because everything is constantly changing, everything "is" and "is not".
-Ignorance only concerns what "is not", because it's false.
-Anyway, all of this stuff above is the reason for why Socrates says a successful philosopher is the best option for a ruler because while regular people have belief, only a philosopher has KNOWLEDGE (what truly "is").
-The ruler of a city should rule with perfect justice. This is only possible if the ruler has knowledge of what justice truly is. Therefore, the ruler has to be a philosopher because only a philosopher will have the knowledge what justice truly is.
-Socrates uses a ship as a metaphor/analogy.
-The ship's owner is stupid (he represents the citizens).
-The ship has sailors (representing politicians and sophists) trying to use arguments, drugs, etc. to try and persuade the ship's owner to let them steer the ship.
-The ship also has one sailor (representing "successful" philosophers) who actually knows how to properly steer the ship because of his knowledge of navigation, stars, etc.
-Unfortunately, because of his knowledge, everyone just thinks he's useless; this is just like in real society, where the ("successful") philosopher is seen as useless as well.
-So, based on this ship analogy, what actually qualifies the philosopher to serve as ruler of a city? What KNOWLEDGE does he have that will make him a good ruler?
-Socrates says that a ("successful") philosopher will have knowledge of the Form of "Justice", but also of the Form of "Good".
-This knowledge is so important because without knowledge of "Good", the philosopher won't know what is good about the other Forms!
-The Form of "Good" is like the sun, which makes things visible. Thus, the Form of "Good" makes the other Forms intelligible. The sun gives growth and nourishment to everything in nature. Thus, the Form of "Good" gives being, itself, to our world! Like a "Super Form".
-Glaucon becomes confused, so Socrates elaborates.
-The sun produces sunlight so we can see. Likewise, the Form of "Good" provides meaning for us among the physical objects of the world.
-Forms like "Justice" and "Beauty" can't exist without "Good". "Good" is the key to all the other forms. Thus, "Good" is at the top of the forms, hierarchically.
-Thus, everything we see are imperfect "images" of the Forms.
-Socrates then continues by telling Glaucon to imagine a line cut into two unequal pieces (A and B), and then the longer piece (A) cut into two unequal pieces again (A1 and A2), and the shorter one (B) into two unequal pieces as well (B1 and B2).
-Line B represents our physical world.
-B2 represents the shadows and reflections of objects in our world. B1 represents the physical objects themselves.
-Line A represents our knowledge, not just what we can see.
-A2 represents hypotheses- what we know on the basis of other fundamental principles.
-A1 represents the truth upon which all other truths are founded.
-Socrates then starts talking about... a cave.
-Deep in this cave are a group of prisoners chained up to a wall partition, facing a blank cave wall. Behind the prisoners is a fire. Between the fire and the partition, people walk with puppets and objects and hold them up in front of the fire in a way that creates shadows on the cave wall that the prisoners are looking at. The prisoners can also only hear the echoes of the puppeteers. Thus, the prisoners are divorced from reality.
-The prisoners play meaningless games and have meaningless debates about the shadows and what they are and shit.
-Of course, WE are the prisoners in this cave, and our arguments and debates and bullshit are us talking about the shadows, which are not even the real thing.
-So, what would happen if a prisoner was somehow freed? He would be scared to go outside of the cave and into the sunlight! But if they were DRAGGED into the sunlight, they'd also be scared but would soon realize what reality really is.
-Therefore, the escaped prisoner that's walking around outside and in the sun is the philosopher IRL. That's why the philosopher seems useless in our shitty society. Also, the prisoners don't care about the philosopher because he doesn't care about the shadows or their meaningless debates about them.
-Thus, it's very unlikely for a philosopher to become a king unless one is born into royalty or something.
-Also, why would a philosopher even want to rule? Why go back in the cave?
-Socrates answers this by saying that it's not in the philosopher's interest to rule, but also the philosopher isn't selfish and that liberating the other prisoners is the right thing to do. -Of course, it's ironic that those who don't want the power of rulership would actually be the best rulers.
-Two popular misconceptions about The Allegory of the Cave:
-First- the world of the forms is "Heaven" or some kind of separate reality that we should seek, thus abandoning our physical world. Instead, these are just two different perceptions of reality.
-We live our lives with both truth and falsehoods, but the philosopher wants truth only.
-Second- Plato is endorsing some kind of mysticism.
-The philosopher will grasp truth AND reality upon exiting the cave. However, being dragged into the sunlight is meant to be a process through education and reason, and it's not the sun that's the truth, but the things they see outside in the sunlight.
-This is more dialectic than mystical because it is using things you know to "liberate" you from "the cave".
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