start to articulate what education is, and what it is not. concern is embedded in the Socrates’ larger discussion of the but it also goes all the way back to Book 1 where guardians’ education, Thrasymachus, in a pitch of frustration with Socrates, assumes the wrong definition of education: how am I to by what I said just now? What more can ‘And persuade you, if you aren’t persuaded I do? Am I to take your argument and pour it into your very soul?’ ‘God forbid! Don’t do that!’ Socrates replies. This passage from 1 humorously illustrates the view of education that Republic Socrates uses the cave allegory to counteract. At 518b-c Socrates finally reveals what the cave allegory has been designed to illustrate: briefly, that is not what some people declare ‘education it to be, namely putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into but blind eyes,’ the whole For the purposes of this discussion, therefore, let us rather ‘turning soul’ around. consider this the ending of the cave allegory. The passage as a whole falls into two main parts: (1) from 514a through 517a Socrates presents the image, and (2) from 517b through 518d he presents a series of interpretive glosses. References to the cave continue beyond this point, but these continuing references differ in important ways from the interpretive glosses. Socrates explicitly presents interpretive glosses from 517b to 518d as aids to interpreting the image whole image, Glaucon, must be fitted (‘This together with what we said before . . Socrates interprets the upward .’, 517a8-b1); prisoner’s journey as an ascent to the intelligible realm and the Form of the Good. He describes the return to the cave, and then he focuses on the two ways that the eyes can be confused prisoner’s (when they are disoriented by the ascent out of the cave and when they are disoriented by the return back in, which paves the way for his climactic definition of true education). In contrast, the allusions to the cave that continue beyond this point draw out implications that the cave allegory has for the education of the rulers in ideal city. Socrates’
start to articulate what education is, and what it is not. Socrates’ concern is embedded in the larger discussion of the guardians’ education, but it also goes all the way back to Book 1 where Thrasymachus, in a pitch of frustration with Socrates, assumes the wrong definition of education: ‘And how am I to persuade you, if you aren’t persuaded by what I said just now? What more can I do? Am I to take your argument and pour it into your very soul?’ ‘God forbid! Don’t do that!’ Socrates replies. This passage from Republic 1 humorously illustrates the view of education that Socrates uses the cave allegory to counteract. At 518b-c Socrates finally reveals what the cave allegory has been designed to illustrate: briefly, that ‘education is not what some people declare it to be, namely putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes,’ but rather ‘turning the whole soul’ around. For the purposes of this discussion, therefore, let us consider this the ending of the cave allegory. The passage as a whole falls into two main parts: (1) from 514a through 517a Socrates presents the image, and (2) from 517b through 518d he presents a series of interpretive glosses. References to the cave continue beyond this point, but these continuing references differ in important ways from the interpretive glosses. Socrates explicitly presents interpretive glosses from 517b to 518d as aids to interpreting the image (‘This whole image, Glaucon, must be fitted together with what we said before . . .’, 517a8-b1); Socrates interprets the prisoner’s upward journey as an ascent to the intelligible realm and the Form of the Good. He describes the prisoner’s return to the cave, and then he focuses on the two ways that the eyes can be confused (when they are disoriented by the ascent out of the cave and when they are disoriented by the return back in, which paves the way for his climactic definition of true education). In contrast, the allusions to the cave that continue beyond this point draw out implications that the cave allegory has for the education of the rulers in Socrates’ ideal city.