9/17 The Republic #3B

The Divided Line and the Sun
In Plato's the Republic, Plato spends a lot of time discussing the sun in regards to his Divided Line and his Allegory of the Cave. He uses the sun to represent what Plato calls "the good" and the light that the sun produces in truth. It is only when one sees the sun (the good) that can fully understand forms and objects. For Plato, one must first start at the bottom of the divided line with images, objects, things we can perceive. Then one must work up the chain towards the good, and once the philosopher reaches the good, will the philosopher be able to see the higher reality and everything illuminated by that. Like in the Allegory of the Cave, once the philosopher has seen the sun, then he can truly understand what the shadows were in the cave. "The good," can be defined as, from the Divided Line and and Allegory of the Cave, that ultimate form or the highest reality. All things that are true come "the good."

Allegory of the Cave
The Allegory of the Cave illustrates the situation of man and the education of man. In Socrates' world of forms and "the good," all we, regular people, can see are reflections of these ultimate forms and truths. What we were taught to be true, isn't true at all, but a mere shadow of truth. Like the people who are trapped in the cave, they grew up knowing and identifying the shadows on the wall as what is real. But the philosopher who has left the cave and eventually seen the sun, understands that this not the case at all. His job is to go back to the cave with the people, and help them to understand what he has come to know. Socrates held that people should be ruled by "philosopher kings," in the Allegory of the Cave, the people who have seen the sun and returned to the cave are philosopher kings. According to Socrates, they should rule us and educate us so that we may what is real light, not just shadows.