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Book VII Of Plato's Allegory Of The Republic

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1. I think one of the most important ideas that Plato expresses comes from Book VII of the Republic, in the Allegory of the Cave. It is an idea that states that the extent of our knowledge will usually only cover topics that we’ve had exposure in. Today, society’s access to information is abundant, but not everyone makes the decision to find that information. Thus, as a person grows up with the scope of their perception isolated in a certain environment (village, city, state, country, etc.), they may not be able to pull a good variety of influence and knowledge from areas outside their scope. As a result, you end up with an individual with their own political beliefs and personal ideals, that have been restrained to a certain state of mind …show more content…

In a perfect world, the philosopher would become society’s greatest ruler. If we look at Socrates’ definition of the ideal philosopher, it would turn out that the philosopher has everything we look for in a leader. The philosopher has spent most of their lives exploring outside of the cave. They would be able to see the truth with clarity, and lead society through the most stable paths to ensure an ideal future. There would be no quarrels, as all of society’s trust is placed onto the capable philosopher’s shoulders. Unfortunately, with the way our society is now, it would be impossible to adopt this idealistic idea. Socrates refutes this idea through his parable of the ship, as well as through his identification of unwanted traits found in society. Although a true navigator exists on the ship (the philosopher), the crew will scramble over each other in a desperate grab for power (parts of society) while ignoring the navigator. Today, the philosopher’s biggest weakness as a ruler would be the inability to keep a strong grasp on their position while gaining the support of their society. Like Socrates says, the philosopher is not at fault, but rather it is the fault of people. An idea like this would never fly in our own country, because like many of us know, you simply cannot get everyone to agree to one

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