Plato

A discussion about perception and leadership is at the heart of Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave." A prisoner brought up to believe that the shadows on a wall are reality is then released from his shackles and is then allowed to experience the world in its full three dimensions. But Plato’s point is not about breaking the chains of two dimensions into the third, but from the chains of our reality into something more. Plato imagines this freedom from bondage, this walk outside of the cave into the sun, as being a journey of the soul towards intellectual enlightenment. Plato wants us to be able to go past what we can see with our eyes and to actually know what objects are.

One thing that always is of interest is that the world as we see it is only our mind’s interpretation of it. For example, our eyes pick up green more sensitively than the other colors. It is possible that our senses are not showing us reality correctly. Our eyes play tricks on us, we hear noises that aren’t there, and even our memories trick us. There has to be a constant skepticism in what we perceive.

After we travel outside of our caves, Plato argues that those enlightened have a responsibility to return to the caves and be leaders. He says that the most knowledgeable must become the politicians and lead the others because only through knowledge can you know what goodness and justice is. Plato thinks that those who want to lead are not fit, and only those who must lead out of obligation to their country should lead.

I don’t know if I agree with an idea of “absolute justice” or if there is such a thing as a finite goodness. I think that ideas such as “good” and “justice” are human constructs that don’t actually exist. Each culture has their own idea of what good is, each culture their own idea of justice, and often times these ideas of what is right contradict. But, who is to say which is right? Are Christian values good? Are Islamic values better? Jewish values bad? Is Plato the one to tell us which is which? You can’t find a moral code through a math book or by a logic exercise. There isn’t a formula that can be applied for justice. Putting power into the hands of a few enlightened people runs the risk of falling into a “Who watches the watchmen?” type of situation. Is the will of the enlightened necessarily the best thing for everybody? One of the problems with representative democracy is that the people representing us don’t always have their public’s best interest at hand, but it tends to even out because they are ultimately responsible to their constituents. The philosopher kings are only responsible to their knowledge and what their definition of good is, not the people.

James G