philospher king

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Recommended: analyze Plato's allegory of the cave

In Plato’s renowned “Allegory of the Cave”, he presents an analogy for the human condition and the platonic ideal of education. Plato believed that these conceptualized ideals of truth were much like the sunlight outside of the cave. If we are equal to those trapped in the cave; then through the purpose of becoming enlightened we find a way to shatter our narrow ways of thinking. Through this process Plato’s philosopher king is realized. Nonetheless, there is a “principle” and a “cause” within the allegory that justify why Plato’s philosopher king has an obligation to rule over the city-state. First and foremost, the principle rests in Plato’s description of “The Form of the Good”. In the Republic uses the sun as a metaphor for the Good, or as the source of "illumination". “The Form of the Good” is about the nature of ultimate reality and how it is the illumination of all understanding. In essence, one needs to understand everything to understand anything, and once you understand anything one can proceed to understand everything. Moving from the principle to the cause, the cause resides in the philosopher’s descent back into the cave. The philosopher’s descent can be defined in two properties. The first property is the necessity of the decent into the cave, which unfolds into a moral and a virtuous duty. This occurs after witnessing the blindness of the less enlightened. While the second unfolds in an esoteric direction; meaning the aspiration to perfect the philosopher’s personal soul and the city-state itself. Through both of these facets, one can discern that the “allegory of the cave” justifies why the philosopher king has an obligation to rule over the city-state. However, before delving into why the philoso... ... middle of paper ... ...e, the descent into the cave is the philosopher accepting the role to be made to live a worse life, when it is within their power to be a perfect being and live a better one. It can now be ascertained that the “ Allegory of the Cave” justifies why the philosopher king has a sense of obligation to rule over the city-state because he travels through a journey in which he is able to perceive all forms of good and gives up his self interest for the preservation of the city state. We see that with the form of good anchored in his soul he has a true sense of justice and feels the need to rule out of necessity. Secondly after descending into the cave, the philosopher comes to the understanding that he in-fact binds the city together and with the philosopher king at the forefront, the city can continue on a path of ascension that correlates with the form of the good.

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