PHL 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Tums, Thrasymachus
5 Jul 2016
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Document Summary
Explaining his idea of a philosopher-king, plato appeals to three successive analogies to spell out the metaphysical and epistemological theories that account for the philosopher"s irreplaceable role in politics. The analogy of the sun illuminates the notion of the form of the good, the philosopher-king"s ultimate object of desire. The line illustrates the four different grades of cognitive activity of which a human being is capable, the highest of which only the philosopher-kings ever reach. The allegory of the cave demonstrates the effects of education on the human soul, demonstrating how we move from one grade of cognitive activity to the next. In the allegory of the cave, plato asks us to imagine the following scenario: a group of people have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing any daylight at all. These people are bound in such a way that they cannot look to either side or behind them, but only straight ahead.
