Sun And Sight In Plato's Republic

Plato’s Republic deals with three central images, the sun, the line, and the cave. Through these images, Socrates explains to his student Glaucon the difference between sensory things and true thoughts and forms. Plato uses his allegory of the cave to assert that the masses are living in ignorant bliss and that it is the job of the philosopher, no matter the consequences, to spread enlightenment. In order to understand this, to first understand Plato’s other ideas from the Republic, those of the sun and the line. Plato uses the sun and sight to convey to Glaucon how it is that humanity may ever come to understand the form of the Good. The sun is to be recognized as the Good; it “is not sight, but… it [is] the cause of sight itself, and seen by it” (Plato 65). Without the sun, things could neither exist, in that all beings, to Plato’s knowledge, required sunlight for survival, nor be seen, as our eyes cannot function …show more content…
The cave dweller, upon exiting the cave, is blinded and is only able to come to see the true world slowly, just as humans are only able to slowly become enlightened after the first painful break from their ignorance. Once this former-prisoner is able to begin to see in the true light of the sun, he sees “shadows…, images… and other things in water” (68) before he can see these objects for what they really are. Though this would seem on the surface to be the same situation this prisoner left behind in the cave, it is not, for now, they are able to see reflections and shadows through pure sunlight, rather than by firelight. Eventually, as the prisoner’s eyes adjust, they are able to see real objects. This is representative of seeing the true forms of things through understanding, the highest form of cognition of Plato’s line. Yet, there is still something above understanding, and that is the