Plato's Cave Allegory and Socrates' Intellectualism

Plato's Allegory of the Cave: A Philosophical Journey

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is arguably his most famous philosophical concept. It explains his Theory of Ideas, his epistemological theory (theory of knowledge), and his anthropological theory (theory of human nature).

The story places us in a cave where prisoners have been forced to look at shadows cast by a fire and moving objects throughout their lives. In this first metaphor, the author identifies the prisoners chained to the human soul, which is tied to an earthly body and belongs to the world of things. This world is imperfect and sensitive, and its characteristics are mere shadows of reality.

In the myth, Plato wonders what would happen if one of the prisoners were to stand and see the fire and the real objects. He suggests that the prisoner would feel pain and realize that what he previously saw were only shadows of reality. If he were to ascend to the surface, something similar would happen. This release allows human beings to rid themselves of the world of sense and achieve the ideal world, which is perfect, eternal, and unchanging. This world can only be accessed through the soul and reason.

In the epistemological aspect, the Allegory of the Cave is identified as the world of things. In it, there are imitations of the water (the world of Ideas), but they are imperfect and misleading: the shadows on the wall are imitations of the shadows of objects on the surface, and the fire is the imitation of the sun. Against this background, prisoners can only know what they see; that is, they can only see shadows on the wall, and they identify them with reality. So, when one is released and can see the fire and other elements of the cave, he would be closer to true knowledge. However, this knowledge would not be complete but would be what Plato called Doxa, or opinion.

If the prisoner is forced to ascend to the surface, he may observe and watch the outside world, the world of Ideas. He would gradually see the objects that compose it: first the shadows, later objects reflected in water, then the objects themselves, the night sky, and finally, the sun, which is identified with the supreme idea of Good. The knowledge gained here would be true knowledge, that which Plato calls Episteme.

Socrates: Method and Moral Intellectualism

Socrates had a very peculiar method, which consisted of making people think for themselves by exposing their own thoughts. (His father was a potter and sculptor, and his mother was a midwife; in both offices, something is given birth to from the inside.) Socrates believed that each person should not be taught things but should discover the truth that lies inside.

His method has three stages:

1. Irony: This is the starting point. We must bring the listener to believe that he knows nothing by asking questions to break the dogma. Thus, without saying so directly, he makes the man discover his own ignorance, makes him doubt, leads him to investigate and criticize the views of others, and, by admitting his own ignorance, makes him get to the truth. "I only know that I know nothing" exemplifies Socratic irony.
2. Mayeutica: This means birth, giving birth to the truth. The dialogue brings the truth to light (with help from others, it leads to the truth so that the other person discovers the truth in themselves).

Moral Intellectualism

Unlike the pre-Socratic philosophers (physicists), Socrates replaces concern with the cosmos with genuine concern for Man: his moral nature. Wisdom does not come to man from without but from within (reminiscence). The wise man is not the one living in securities but the one who doubts and questions. Moral intellectualism is a doctrine that equates virtue with knowledge. The virtuous person knows that he who does evil is ignorant because the property is useful for the individual and for the city. It so influences the understanding that once known, it determines the will, which cannot stop loving and practicing. He who has not practiced it is because he has not known it, that is, he does not know what is good. "Only by knowing what is justice can one be fair; only by knowing what is good can one do good."