![]() This condition (perplexity, confusion) is similar to that of Cephalus, who exits our conversation early, and Polemarchus at the very beginning of the present dialogue. At that point when we lead our prisoner from the darkness into the light, the prisoner will likely be physically dazed and intellectually perplexed. The conversation of the Allegory of the Cave is highly allusive. James' theories are interestingly similar to Plato's. James called this the ability to "subsume novel data." It is said that, in applying these ideas to the world of "things" and empirical phenomena, James anticipated the science of modern physics. James believed that the highest form of intellect is manifested in the ability to perceive similarities in apparently dissimilar things. Interestingly, the American philosopher William James (1842-1910) believed that, in the world of ideas, ideas are connected by a kind of next-to-next relationship. He has learned something "new," but it is a learning predicated upon a previous assumption. For example, the prisoner whom we help ascend from the Cave originally imagines that the shadows on the wall are "real things" when he is permitted to perceive walkway, fire, people, and objects carried, he perceives the shadows as shadows of real things. Plato seems to believe that all levels of intellect are somehow connected, not disparate the person who achieves Dialectic has already subsumed the other levels in his progress. (Refer to the conversation about the levels of intellect in the preceding analysis.) Intellectually, the developing thinker moves from the level of imagining, upward to common-sense belief, thence to thinking, thence to the summit of Dialectic, also termed intelligence or knowledge. It is useful and probably necessary at this juncture that we compare the diagrams of the Divided Line (in the preceding analysis) and the Allegory of the Cave, following.Īs the prisoner ascends from the Cave and emerges into the World of Day, allegorically his levels of intellect improve as his ascension progresses. ![]() Socrates here reminds us, again, that the business of rulers is not to make themselves happy their happiness is to be realized in the happiness of every citizen in the Ideal State. It would be a lot of work to lead his fellows into the light of a kind of new dawn of knowledge. Glaucon objects: He argues that for the enlightened prisoner to return to the Cave would make him unhappy. He must be returned to the Cave to enlighten his erstwhile fellows about the knowledge he now perceives. Thus, allegorically, we must release the prisoners from their Cave: We must give the Guardians the experience of education so that they can become the philosopher-kings of the Ideal State, because they will be able to know the Forms and, finally, Goodness itself.īut it is not enough that the prisoner, freed, now possesses knowledge. If the prisoner were to be returned to the Cave, his old fellows would not believe his experiences, since they have always been imprisoned in their world, the Cave. The sun stands for the Form of Goodness itself. If we took the prisoner back into the Cave, into his old world, he would not be able to function well in his old world of shadows.įor the allegory, the Cave corresponds to the realm of belief the World of Day corresponds to the realm of knowledge. The sun makes this new perception possible. But he will gradually see the stars and the moon he will then be able to see shadows in the daylight thrown by the sun then he will see objects in the full light of day. When we drag him out of the Cave and into the World of Day, the sun will blind him. He will want to return to his old perceptions of the shadows as reality. When he is told that the people and things he now perceives are more real than the shadows, he will not believe it. If we unchain one of the prisoners and make him turn around, he would be frightened, pained by new physical movement, dazzled by the fire, unable at first to see. The prisoners perceive the shadows and echoes as reality. The prisoners perceive only shadows of the people and things passing on the walkway the prisoners hear echoes of the talk coming from the shadows. A fire is burning behind the prisoners between the fire and the arrested prisoners, there is a walkway where people walk and talk and carry objects. They can see only the wall of the Cave in front of them. There are prisoners in the Cave who have been chained there since their childhood they are chained to the ground and chained by their heads. Socrates is here still trying to clarify the four levels of intellect, the two levels of belief, and the two levels of knowledge.įor this allegory, we are to imagine an underground Cave, whose entrance/exit leads upward to daylight. Having presented us with the Analogy of the Sun and the Analogy of the Line, Socrates now in the conversation introduces the Allegory of the Cave.
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