Introduction
Plato is perhaps one of the most well-known philosophers in Western history. Even if many people don’t fully understand his ideas, most are aware that he was a very important and influential thinker. How did someone who lived over 2000 years ago have such a tremendous and lasting impact on our culture? By introducing a new way of seeing the world that revolutionized how philosophers defined truth. In The Republic and The Apology, Plato uses the character Socrates (based on, but probably not an accurate representation, of his teacher) to explain his view of truth, his method for finding it, and his philosophy that this knowledge is the key to living a good life.
The allegory of the cave
In The Republic, Plato describes his version of the ideal society, a utopia, by having Socrates engage in conversations with various people. He says that the best kind of government would be one in which the philosophers are in charge, because of the fact that they seek truth above all else and his view that the pursuit of truth is the highest good. In order to describe what makes these “philosopher kings” different from other people, he tells his friend Glaucon the Allegory of the Cave to illustrate that without actively engaging in philosophy, most people cannot see the world the way it truly is.
Socrates creates for Glaucon a scene in which people dwell in a cave, chained in place and unable to see the entrance of the cave behind them. In front of them, however, they can see shadows on the wall of the cave, cast by a fire that stands between them and the outside world. As objects pass by this fire, the cave-dwellers can see only their shadows. Because this is all they ever see of the outside world, they mistake these illusions for truth. If one of these people were set free and led out of the cave, into the larger world outside, they would see things as they really are. But if they returned to the cave and attempted to enlighten their captive friends of this new reality, the people in chains would not believe them or even know how to comprehend what exists outside the cave. They would continue to believe that the shadows on the wall were the only reality that could exist.
In the allegory, Socrates explains, the people in the cave represent the general population. They do not and cannot see the truth because they do not dare free themselves from the chains of their illusions. The journey from the inside of the cave to the world beyond is an allegory for the path of the philosopher. Outside the cave is truth, since only those who free themselves from their shackles have access to it. And once they have been released from their illusions, they will desire only to seek the truth. These people, The Republic argues, are the ones who can be trusted to rule society, for the good of all, as “philosopher kings.”
In the process of making this argument, Plato reveals his idea that reality has a dual nature. On one hand, the shadows on the wall are a reflection of the truth, and are very real to those who see them. On the other hand, the philosopher can see that objects outside of the cave, which cast these shadows, represent the truth itself. Both the world inside the cave and the world outside of it are real in a sense, thus the dual nature of reality.
The apology
In The Republic, Plato uses the format of a discussion to illustrate how Socrates slowly approaches the truth of a matter by questioning his own, and other philosophers’, assumptions. This method of discourse came to be known as the Socratic method, and it also plays an important role in Socrates’ defense of himself against charges of impiety and corrupting the youth in The Apology. He argues that by using this method travelling in search of knowledge all over Greece, he had done his society a great service by pointing out people’s ignorance in matters they thought themselves to be experts on. By doing this, he was attempting to free people from the “caves” they lived in to help them see the real truth. Instead, some very important men in Athens were offended and brought him to trial.
He begins his defense by saying that it was an oracle at Delphi which set him on a quest for knowledge to begin with. He had been told that he was “the wisest of all men” by the prophet of the god Apollo and he could not believe that this was true. So he sought out men he thought to be of superior intelligence and began to question them on the true meaning of the subjects they knew so much about. In the process, he found that people who claimed to know a lot actually knew very little. This is because they could not comprehend how much they didn’t know. Only Socrates understood that wisdom comes from recognizing how little you know. He believed that by constantly questioning yourself and others, the only conclusion one could come to is that they know nothing of the ultimate truth.
Historical context
Plato’s ideas were quite revolutionary for his time. Unlike earlier Sumerians, Babylonians, Egyptians, and even his Greek ancestors, he refused to put blind faith into religion in order to find answers. And while Greek philosophers had been pondering the universe for centuries before him, he was the first to really question our ability to trust our own knowledge. He also believed that philosophy was essential not just for understanding the world around us, but for living a good life. In fact, once a person had set upon the path to seeking knowledge through philosophy, he believed that they would desire nothing more than to continue this quest for truth.
Most earlier Greek philosophers were natural scientists, who used observation to describe the way the world worked and what it was made of; Plato used reason to understand the nature of truth, which he believed was objective and unchanging. Plato was also the first, but definitely not the last, philosopher to explore the idea of an ideal society. The Golden Age of Greece, with the rise of democracy and a flourishing culture, was the perfect setting for such an intellectual inquiry. Plato, who had originally studies under Socrates, started a school of philosophy in Athens where he taught his ideas and his methods and became very influential in his own time.
Plato’s influence
Plato’s revolutionary ideas would go on to shape much of Western Civilization. His student Aristotle, who disagreed with Plato in many ways but was nonetheless influenced by him, went on to become an important philosopher in his own right. And Aristotle’s student, Alexander, paved the way for Plato’s ideas, along with the rest of Hellenic culture, to spread throughout Asia and the Mediterranean world. Medieval Christianity and modern science borrowed ideas from Plato as well, such as the idea that reason can provide us with knowledge of things that cannot be observed. The Socratic method is still used today in classrooms and other learning environments, and the idea of philosophy as a path to the good life is also common in certain circles. Even to this day, we can see traces of Plato’s philosophy all around us.
Conclusion
While his works can be difficult to read and he doesn’t come out and state his point directly, reading Plato is a very valuable experience for all students of Western Civilization. In fact, if he were more direct in stating his philosophy, he would be depriving the reader of the ability to see his method at work. His lengthy dialogues are set up to walk the reader through Plato’s own thought process and he anticipates the kinds of objections or observations his reader might interject into the conversation is he were able to. By using Socrates as a mouth piece to slowly expose the ignorance of his counterparts, Plato exposes the ignorance in us all. He urges us to dig deeper for truth than what we see on the surface, and to question our own senses when it comes to their ability to observe the world as it truly is. Generations of thinkers have been influenced by his works, and continue to be today. In two of his most famous works, The Republic and The Apology, he introduces the reader, and the world, to his idea of one objective, unchangeable, almost unknowable truth, and why the search for it is the best way to live one’s life.
