POLS 2900 Chapter Notes -Timocracy, Class Conflict
13 Oct 2013
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Book 6, socrates provides the great metaphor of the allegory of the cave. Metaphor explains the effects of education on the human soul; it brings the philosopher through various stages, ultimately to the form of the good. A group of people have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing the light of day. These people are bound so that they cannot look to either side or behind them, but only straight ahead. Behind them is a fire, and behind the fire is a partial wall. On top of the wall are various statues, which are manipulated by another group of people, lying out of sight behind the partial wall. Because of the fire, the statues cast shadows across the wall that the prisoners are facing. The prisoners watch the stories that these shadows play out, and because these shadows are all they ever get to see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world.
