1. Plato, Republic The Allegory of the Cave and Dialectic
Assistant Professor Sandrine Bertaux

2. Plato’s primary question: What is Justice? Why do we read Plato today?

3. Plato’s three radical propositions
Rulers and auxiliaries have no private property or family life;
Women can rule and defend the state;
Philosophers should be the rulers.

4. The Allegory of the Cave and Dialectic
Inside the cave
The ascent from the cave
The theory of Forms
The return to the cave– the apparent paradox of the philosopher-rulers
Why do they have to return?
The political implications
The best rulers are so because they have no interest to rule

5. The allegory of the cave (Book VII)
“compare the effect of education and of the lack of it on our nature to an experience like this (B.VII, 514a, tr. Gruber-Reeve) ”

6. The role of education
Socrates explains that the allegory of the cave evidences that current understanding of education is wrong:
(518c, tr. Grube-Reeve)“Education is not what some people declare it to be, namely, putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into a blind eyes”
Rather, education is about the “turning around” of the mind itself namely, towards the right direction that is, the Good.
The process of learning is like the slow and painful ascent from the cave into the sunlight (VII 514a-517b)

7. Inside the cave (VII-513e-514c)
Men are prisoners since their childhood
They cannot move and they cannot turn their head : they can only look straight ahead at a wall
Behind and above them: men are carrying artifacts including figures of peoples and animals; some talk

8. The world of ignorance and illusion
“Then the prisoners would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of those artifacts” (515c, tr. Grube-Reeve)”
“they are drawn from life” (515a)
Socrates: What would happen if one is freed?

9. The Ascent out of the cave : Stage 1
1) he realizes that the figures of the puppeteers are more real than the shadows;
Leaves the world of illusion and imagination to the one of belief

10. The Ascent out of the cave : Stage 2
2) outside the cave: the real objects-trees, flowers, birds: more real than the figures that are only copies;
Leaves the world of belief to the one of thought

11. The Ascent out of the cave : Stage 3
3)Looks at the sun and realizes that the sun is the source of light and what causes him to see in the first place– the Sun is the source of everything. Leaves the world of thought for that of understanding.

12. Plato’s Theory of Forms (Ideas)
Set of binary oppositions
The sensible vs. the intelligible
Opinion vs knowledge
Becoming vs. Being
Primacy of Idea or Forms over the material world
We do not know through experience but only through philosophy that is, by studying the Forms= Dialectic
Implications:
Only the philosophers know the form of the Good-the highest Form (and other Forms)
They are therefore best suited the polis

14. Descending back to the cave
Opening line of Republic: Socrates “I went down to the Piraeus …” “They would kill him…” (517a) – think of Socrates.

15. The apparent paradox of the philosopher-rulers
Apparent paradox: by definition, philosophers do not want to rule but for Plato it is precisely because they do not want to rule that they are the best to rule;
They must be forced to rule: won’t they be unhappy then?
Remember: Plato abolished private property and family life for the guardians and auxiliaries:
Plato: private property is the main reason why men sacrifice public interest to private interest; thus their happiness will lie in the service of the community and not of any particular class.

16. Dialectic
Dialectic is the ultimate stage of education of the would-be philosopher-rulers– the “coping-stone” (534e)
Dialectic= the process of inquiring directly into the Forms.

17. Questions
Do you agree with Plato that lack of interest in politics is what make the best rulers?
Why is dialectic taught late in the training of the guardians? What does it say about the place of philosophy in kallipolis?
The problem with reality:
The Matrix “Welcome to the desert of the real”
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