The various insights Plato instigated in his works, “The Allegory” and “Socratic Dialogues”
The fundamental need to understand the essence of being, to grasp at the knowledge held in the world, has necessitated the outcrop of philosophers. Most of whom have intently made their mark in history due to the uniqueness in which they perceive the world and all that is in it. Plato is one of the most recognized philosophers to have ever lived. This paper aims to highlight the various insights Plato instigated in his works, “The Allegory” and “Socratic Dialogues”. In analyzing the two works as written by Plato, I intend to conceptualize the thoughts that he distributed within and in the very least give a clearer output of what he addressed.
Plato believes that a morally upright man with strong values is bound to do the right thing, despite the repercussions that may be withholding a man. In the Allegory, Plato through the words of Socrates to his younger brother Glaucon, speaks of one of the prisoners in the cave, living in darkness who makes it into the surface to see the light. A man grasping at the tenderness of freedom from drenched nightmares of conformed and forced darkness will naturally relish in his newfound happiness. However, the prisoner decides to go back and try to convince the rest of his friends to join him, in seeing the light. He says, “And when he remembered his old habitation and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change and pity them?” (Plato 11). Hereby, he is declaring a man to be sensible enough to think more than who he is, to be of help to more than just be consumed within the self. This is despite the name-calling that the prisoner received when he tried to retrieve his fellows from the darkness, regarding him as the wrongdoer for going into the light and coming yet back again into the dark. In common times, such an allegory can be attributed to people who do well or strive to do a good deed that it is not always easy when doing such things. Plato in magnifying such a scenario illustrates, “Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes” (Plato 11). About the one who saw the light and understood that the current stature they were in wasn’t right. However, the prisoners too accustomed to the dark would view him as the one in the wrong. The prisoner in his deed to help those he left behind gets killed, they still viewed him as the one in the wrong.
There is an insistence in the belief of man being used to the comforts of his life, that man becomes afraid to achieve anything better due to fear of a better nature. Through the prisoners of the dark cave, Plato has significantly illustrated how people get caged to the confines of societal ideals that are not only dehumanizing but because it is all they know. In a sense, he is trying to show the fear of people in accepting new ideologies and maybe the better good that exists in life. The prisoners of the dark cave with no light but darkness are so used to it, that they care not to imagine something better like seeing the light and being free. They are caged by their insecurities such that when the prisoner who made it outcomes back for them they view him as insane and instead kill him. Thus, killing their only hope of being able to achieve freedom. He says, “But whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all” (Plato 11). People are so afraid in the existence of good because most of the time what they have been shown or have known is bad. In that, someone is more likely to accept any dark deed rather than an honest good deed. Plato is, however, quick to infer that when goodness is duly acknowledged then the world is shed in the light of nice and beautiful things. When a man has duly accepted and foregone the fear of accepting good deeds.
Plato further implies the necessity of knowing the first account of details. Knowledge gripped through sight or a first account of the deed can give a clearer depiction of events or circumstances. He says, “…the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light” (Plato 12). Which he duly implies is not just limited to the eyes only but to the mind and body as well. Here, he gives the impression that understanding of things have to be had on a one on the basis where an individual can discern for himself/ herself the predicaments involved. In such a manner, people would not be too quick to throw blame or shame those of whom they have no idea about what they are experiencing. By being conversant with such instances one would be able to decide whether the actions taken by one are justified or rather the individual lacks the proper guidance in making decisions- a far off position from just quick judgments based on flimsy whims as prone to the ignorant mind. In concern to his cave of prisoners he says, “…there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den” (Plato 12). Plato says this about the man who laughs at one who would not take good advice when given as opposed to the prisoners who laughed at the free prisoner coming to take them to the light.
In “Socratic Dialogues” Plato insinuates the importance that wisdom can impact on people, bringing himself out as a man who believes in the power of knowledge. Wisdom, in this case, he shows is potentially crucial especially if gathers a following of people who believe in what is said. He says, from a dialogue between Socrates and Euthyphro, “For a man may be thought wise; but the Athenians, I suspect, do not much trouble themselves about him until he begins to impart his wisdom to others, and then for some reason or other, perhaps, as you say, from jealousy, they are angry”(Plato 15). The Athenians are only prone to react if people believe in what someone says as it is prone to induce a community with a common belief, such that can withstand against them. Similarly, people with knowledge who choose to share it are bound to find like-minded people who believe in the same ideologies thereafter creating a community that believes in the same. Wielding information is thus trivial if someone needs to survive as it creates a necessity of knowing things ordinary people do not. He, however, adequately reinstates that no man can fully understand the knowledge of the world by intricately detailing that even Socrates considered himself wise because he knew less. This he does by Socrates words, “And I am called wise, for my hearers always imagine that I possess the wisdom which I find wanting in others: but the truth is, O men of Athens, that God only is wise; and by his answer, he intends to show that the wisdom of men is worth little or nothing” (Plato 12).
Plato is historically known for the great philosophies he wrote, mostly under the influence of his mentor Socrates. Spewing knowledge of great intent into his books that has never ceased to inspire and create deeper insights into life as it is perceived in the later life. His books, “Allegory” and “Socratic Dialogues” might not be his only works but have created a much-needed respite into more of what Plato did and learned. They are thus, substantial memories of what Plato considered and saw during his lifetime.