Summary

In book VII, Socrates gives the most famous and beautiful symbol in Western philosophy; the allegory of the cave. This was intended to show the impacts of education on humans. He discusses the education of the guardians, focusing his time on the study of the arithmetic, astronomy, and geometry. He lays out an ideal curriculum, ending the study of philosophy from age 30-35. Later on, the pursuit of philosophy is made the primary goal and envisages the idea of goodness. The philosopher is moved by education by the phases of the divided line, eventually bringing him to the form of God. He asserts that there are four divisions of the mind: two for opinion and two for intellect (Cohen, Curd, & Reeve, 2016).He argues that the intellectual vision may be classified as understanding and science and those about opinion can be classified as belief and perception of shadows. Continuing the comparison between sight and mind, Socrates explains the vision of an intelligent, wicked man may be as clever as a philosopher.

Main Points of the Dialogue

1. Good as the highest objective of knowledge through education.
2. The Divided Line was describing the visible world of perceived physical objects and the images we make of them.
3. Allegory of the cave – people, are compared to those living in a dark cave and experiences the external world as two-dimensional shadows.
4. The concepts of ideal education with a strong focus on logic and mathematics. Rulers should have sound reasoning and real knowledge.

Discussion Questions

1. By carefully examining the allegory of the cave, how do opinions inside the cave differ from those outside the cave? How does the description of Socrates on“opinions without knowledge” at the start of the dialogue compare to the viewsof the allegory of the cave?
2. The allegory of the cave shows Socrates theory of education and knowledge. Why does it make a strong case for the significance of education? Do you believe that ignorance is similar to being in chains? Can education free us in a sense?

References

Cohen, S. M., Curd, P., & Reeve, C. D. C. (Eds.). (2016). Readings in ancient Greek philosophy: from Thales to Aristotle. Hackett Publishing.

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