Line and the Cave in Plato's Republic

Author: Plato

Time Period: 999 BCE–1 BCE

Country or Culture: Greece

Genre: Myth

PLOT SUMMARY

The line and the cave are separate but related allegories in Plato’s Republic. During the discussion between Socrates and Glaucon on the “Form of the Good,” knowledge, truth, and other related subjects, Socrates introduces a theoretical line. He divides it into two unequal sections to represent the visible world and the larger intelligible world. He then divides each section again in similar proportions. The first visible section represents likenesses or images, such as shadows, reflections of people, animals, objects, and so forth. The second section represents the concrete objects whose likenesses form the first section. The men then agree that these two sections represent different degrees of truth and that they can be viewed as an analogy for the relationship between opinions and knowledge. The third section represents mathematical and scientific thinking, which uses ideas in the form of models and hypotheses to uncover principles. The larger fourth section represents the dialectic (philosophy), which relies on ideas to reach other ideas, rather than models, images, or concrete objects. In this way, Plato argues that philosophy is a higher level of thinking.

The allegory of the cave begins with Socrates describing a cave where humans are imprisoned with chains in such a way that they cannot move and can only view what is in front of them. Behind them is a fire and nearby is a road and wall that serves as a stage. Behind the wall, men pass by carrying various types of vessels, statues of animals, and other objects. The chained prisoners see only the shadows of these figures. To the prisoners, the shadows are reality and thus represent truth. According to Socrates, when the prisoners are released and see the actual people and objects, they will be confused about what is real. Outside of the cave, in the sunlight, they will be blinded by the truth. Only when their eyes adjust will they be able to begin to contemplate reality and the power of the truth.

Socrates explains to Glaucon that this allegory represents the journey of the soul into the intellectual world. He states that in the intellectual spectrum, virtue represents beauty, reason, and truth, and only a person who puts forth the needed effort by thinking and acting rationally will be able to see the light. He then presents two types of blindness—that which occurs while moving from the bright sunlight into darkness and that which occurs when moving from darkness into bright sunlight—and equates the time needed to adjust to each allegorical circumstance with varying degrees of learning.

SIGNIFICANCE

Although Plato’s cave and line narratives are sometimes referred to as myths, they are better described as allegories or parables that he injected into the greater dialogue carried out between Socrates and Glaucon in his philosophical masterpiece the Republic. The line allegory can be found in chapter 6 and the cave allegory in chapter 7. Plato did not write the Republic in chapters, however, and so these divisions represent a much later organization.

Plato used these allegories to elevate the role of dialectic (philosophy) in Greek society and education, where the emphasis during Plato’s lifetime was, instead, on gymnastics and the glorification of physical beauty. While he believed the study of philosophy would benefit all, he felt it was uniquely beneficial to politicians. Plato maintained that leaders trained in dialectic and rationality could rule the state with “virtue and wisdom . . . the true blessings of life” rather than being distracted by the temptations of “silver and gold” (183). For Plato, the ideal education combines music and gymnastics and progresses through all of the major sciences—arithmetic, astronomy, geometry, and harmonics, or music theory. He believed that education should culminate in five years of philosophy after an individual fulfilled the expected fifteen years of military or political service. Notably, Plato believed that women should also be encouraged to study philosophy. Only when a person understood the difference between the four stages of knowledge as indicated by the line analogy—two levels of visible or sensual objects and two levels of the intelligible world—will he or she be able to grasp the “Form of the Good,” or justice and truth. In particular, Plato argued for his fellow Greeks to learn how to differentiate between opinions and facts, symbolized in the cave analogy by images and concrete objects. This distinction remains a major component of critical thinking skills today.

The line and cave allegories serve as foundational narratives in education, phenomenology, metaphysics, epistemology, and other branches of philosophy; they have also influenced religion and politics. The cave allegory in particular has served as a common motif in the arts, sciences, and literature for two millennia—used either metaphorically or overtly to call attention to the problem of ignorance or immoral behavior in humankind.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Audi, Robert, ed. “Divided Line.” The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy. 2nd ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 1999. Print.

Lampert, Laurence. “Images of the Greatest Study: Sun, Line, Cave.” How Philosophy Became Socratic: A Study of Plato’s Protagoras, Charmides, and Republic. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2010. 348–74. Print.

Plato. The Republic. Trans. Benjamin Jowett. Ed. Joslyn T. Pine. Mineola: Dover, 2000. Print.

Williams, Leaun. “Plato and Education.” The SAGE Handbook of Philosophy of Education. Ed. Richard Bailey, et. al. London: Sage, 2010. Print.