Essay About Cave Allegory And Explicit Definition Of The Forms

Plato and the Forms
Essay Preview: Plato and the Forms
Report this essay
Plato never really had an explicit definition of the Forms. There is no set dialog where the
forms are laid out. Instead they are a running theme throughout the Republic. In this essay I
will try to decipher Platos Ðtheory of the forms in reference to his cave allegory.
Plato first introduces the Forms in book 5 of the republic. Forms for Plato are what he
understood to be the reality behind each concept and object in the visible world. For example
if we look at a football we see that it is round has a certain colour weight ect. If we separate
one aspect of that from the object that is a form, so if we separate roundness form the colour
and weight of the ball we are thinking of the form of roundness. The form of roundness is
transcendent and will always be. Even if every football in the whole world was destroyed the
form of roundness would still exist because it exists outside space and time. The forms
themselves are pure and for Plato are the only true things. What we perceive through our
senses as our reality is in fact wrong. The senses mislead us and blind us leaving us ignorant
to the true reality of forms. The form of the good is the highest in Platos eyes. When
discussed in the republic those who reach understanding of the form of good are the ones who
will become guardians of the republic.
To explain this Plato gives us the allegory of the cave found in book 7 of the Republic.
Socrates says to Glaucon: Imagine a cave with men imprisoned inside since childhood. They
are chained so that they can only see in front of them. Behind them is a fire and above them is
a road with a small wall. All these men are able to see are shadows cast on the wall from men
on the road above like a puppet show. These prisoners believe this to be reality, much like we
perceive our sense reality to be true. Socrates suggests that if one was to be freed and taken
up out of the cave they would be bewilled and would want to turn back, however with some
guidance and adjustment he would in time become able to look upon the sun in all its glory
without reflection and see the true world rather than the cave. If the man was to be taken back
down into the cave he would again need to readjust to the darkness of the cave, and the other
prisoners would think he has been damaged from going out of the cave and would try to harm
any one who tried to do the same to them.
In essence this is Platos republic. The darkness of the cave with its shackled prisoners
represents ignorance. To Plato the men who rule Athens are ignorant to the true world,
blinded by greed and corruption. Plato believes that the enlightened few should rule over the
city as they have strived to reach the form of the good. We as people live in a blissful
ignorance of the world around us. Many are content on just being and swallowing what they
are told by those who rule over them. For Plato are existence is no better that those men
chained in the cave. They do not whish for change or expansion of the mind; they are content
to just live in their existence. The prisoner who was freed from his ignorant world represents
enlightenment. The struggle the man has to look at the light of the fire and try to understand
that the images projected on the wall were not anything more than shadows is the struggle
philosophers go through when the start the journey for the truth. The ability to shake of the
shackles of the sense world and except that what you thought was reality is in fact false is a
bewildering experience for everyone. But there are those few who are able to press on with
their journey and go on to ask difficult questions about the world and what they hold to be
true. The shift towards the light and the prisoners journey out of the cave is the philosophers
journey to the form of the good. The last thing the prisoner is exposed to before he goes back
into the cave is the sun. The sun represents the form of the good. This is actually a clever
metaphor. Socrates describes this as “this is indeed the cause for all things of all that is right
and beautiful, giving birth in the visible world to light.light itself in the intelligible world
being the authentic source of truth and reason, and that anyone who is to act wisely in private
or public must have caught sight of this” By using the sun to represents the form of good
Plato is saying that Good is the basis of all life, it has an effect on all things in the world just
like the sun. However if the ascension into the enlightened mind of a philosopher is
something every one should want and desire, why does Plato emphasize the shunning the
prisoner received when he returned to the cave. Surely to promote his idea he should want to
show that the prisoner is welcomed back into the cave with open arms fully admired by the
other prisoners. Also when he talks of the form of the good he is only talking about it in its