• Home Page
  • Cicero And Plato's The Defense Of Injustice

Cicero And Plato's The Defense Of Injustice

Improved Essays
Show More
Utopia

Cicero and Plato were both great thinkers and both have a big influence on how some societies and governments are operated today. In his writing, “The Defense of Injustice”, Cicero talks about how the “justice” his society believes in is manufactured to work for self interest and not for the greater good. He uses a story where two characters Philus and Laelius argue about justice and injustice. He then goes on to talk about a single law that will never change and will be true for every nation: A law that comes from God and not following this law is sinful in any form. “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is similar to this in the fact that the people that gained wisdom by leaving the cave for the upper world would never look back …show more content…
Plato wrote about this in his story, “...they remain in the upper world but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners [in the cave] and partake of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.” (Plato 873) By this Plato means that the people that have unlocked the wisdom should not stay in the upper world and live luxurious lives and get rich out of their wisdom but in the other hand they should go back down to the cave and help the lost people by guiding them to the outside of the cave. The prisoners and the knowledge seeker should live a life together so they can both benefit from this and not just the ones that have already escape the …show more content…
Our nations need good educational systems we need to expand the knowledge of our children we can 't let them stay trapped in a cave we need to help them“...stand up and turn [their] necks [around so they can] walk and look towards the light…”, by doing this we as a civilization will develop new ways of thinking. (Plato 868). Like the prisoners in the cave we need a “philosopher”, a teacher that show us the ways to our “perfect form”. Someone that can show us and enlighten us. The philosopher will help the children “grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world.” Throughout his books Plato explains this “perfect form” which mean to be a perfect version of yourself. By being this “perfect form” you are in no way corrupted by evil and you are rich with knowledge that will allow you to help others in the journey to finding their way out the cave. If we leave our children in this cave they could be manipulated to believe things that evil people could benefit from making a corrupted society If we can teach our children and guide them to unlock their full knowledge our civilization will be closer to reaching our perfect form of society because they will be able to tell good from

Related Documents

  • Great Essays

    Allegory Of The Cave And The Banking Concept Of Education Summary
    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Allegory Of The Cave And The Banking Concept Of Education Summary

    He uses the cave and the prisoners as an allegory to showcase the education system. Plato presents the cave where prisoners, except for one, are trapped. Using the one escapee, Plato states, “Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye” (570). Here, Plato explains the two different sides of education. He presents an example of a person going from light and reality to the dark cave as a scenario of where one who is knowledgeable and willing to question information, is facing ignorance in the near future.…

    • 1882 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Justice In Plato's Republic
    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Justice In Plato's Republic

    Emerging from the latter half of the 5th century BCE, travelling professional intellectuals called the sophists frequented Athens and the surrounding Greek city-states. These intellectuals would offer an education in “arête” (excellence) – to those who would be able to pay a small fee. Arête, during the second half of the fifth century BCE, was associated by Greek citizens with being successfully influential in the political sphere through persuasive speech whereas before then arête was primarily associated with heroic virtues exemplified by Greek heroes like Achilles and Odysseus. Since the sophists were able to provide an education in arête in exchange for a fee, they would later be called “the new ‘teachers’ of 5th-century Athens” (Griffin…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Education In Frederick Douglass Allegory Of The Cave
    • 241 Words
    • 1 Pages

    Education In Frederick Douglass Allegory Of The Cave

    Plato’s ideas about education displayed in “Allegory of the Cave” are also complimented by other great thinkers who feel that education is the only way to enlightenment. In “Learning to Read” written by Frederick Douglass, Douglass talked about how he was a slave and was completely illiterate. During his time period, teaching slaves was against the law (Douglass 101). This kept slaves in the dark, and just like the people in the cave, their overseers were able to remain in command because the slaves didn’t understand that their lives did not have to be lived this way. As a slave, he often ran errands for his slave master, and in those short periods of limited freedom, thanks to the courtesy of others, he was able to gain a benchmark for his…

    • 241 Words
    • 1 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Marcus Tullus Cicero's The Defense Of Injustice?
    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Marcus Tullus Cicero's The Defense Of Injustice?

    Justice Everyone holds their own definition of what justice is, though the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines it, as the process or result of using laws to fairly judge and punish crimes and criminals (Merriam Webster). Although the idea of justice is connotative to good intention, Marcus Tullus Cicero author of The Defense of Injustice, shares a different perspective to the notion of justice. In a persuasive dialogue, Laelius gives Philus the challenge to defend the idea of injustice, in which Philius successfully accomplishes, establishing a powerful argument. Cicero insists that the idea of doing the right thing and having a good intention comes from human weakness and not from the idea of justice. He believes that the idea of justice…

    • 811 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Compare And Contrast The Allegory Of The Cave And Fahrenheit 451
    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Compare And Contrast The Allegory Of The Cave And Fahrenheit 451

    In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave he shows us how his philosophy about freedom, education, and wisdom is depicted through a conversation between his brother Glaucon and his teacher Socrates. When Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave he creates this image of these cave-dwellers the have been imprisoned since birth. They do not have any knowledge of the outside world all they know is the wall that stands in front of them. Sadly the citizens of this cave are chained to the floor, unable to observe any of their surroundings . All they see are shadows and they are only able to these because “ Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets” (Plato).…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Cicero's Late Republic Summary
    • 1932 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Cicero's Late Republic Summary

    Cicero, Tradition and the Crisis of the Late Republic The Late Republic the period following the rise of the Gracchi was known largely as a time period where chaos, disorder and the breakdown of tradition conspired to break down the Roman state that had functioned largely harmoniously since the end of the conflict of the orders and especially during the Middle Republic a time period ruled by the crisis of the Punic Wars. The Roman state and its Constitution was ruled not by any set of written down laws but by tradition and the power of prestige. The Late republic was marked for a general breakdown of this consensus and the creation of new conflicts within the Roman state. The optimates and populares represented a growing and worrying amount…

    • 1932 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    How Did Socrates Return To The Cave
    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages

    How Did Socrates Return To The Cave

    When the philosopher ascends from the cave and sees the light, he understands things for what they really are. Plato argues that in doing this creates a responsibility to return to the cave and educate the people who remain there. Why, having left the cave and being introduced to the true forms of beauty, truth and good, does the philosopher return to the cave to educate who remain there? The philosopher needs to have some motivation that drives him to return to the cave for education. This is a key theme in understanding what the philosopher's role is in Plato's Republic.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Democracy In The Allegory Of The Cave By Plato
    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Democracy In The Allegory Of The Cave By Plato

    When people begin to interpret the illusions of reality in the same way, political control has been achieved. ‘The Allegory of the Cave’ by Plato shows a political structure designed to control how reality is perceived. Control is established by a hierarchy. The classes are determined by the people’s ability to clothe illusions as truth, as opposed to finding truth and using it to dismiss falsehood. Plato argues that the enlightened, or higher men, should be the custodians of rulership, and that they should have an obligation to progress individual and societal development at the expense of control.…

    • 614 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    The Virtue Of Justice In Plato's Republic
    • 1869 Words
    • 8 Pages

    The Virtue Of Justice In Plato's Republic

    In Books II-IV of Plato’s Republic, Socrates creates an ideal polis, and in doing so finds justice in the soul. The two foundational principles of the ideal city that Socrates creates are self-sufficiency and one-person-one-art, referred to today as specialization. Individual people are not self-sufficient, so the citizens of the city must take up a profession and trade with each other. Socrates and his companions are successful in their search for justice, and are able to reach the answer by considering the classes and their education in an ideal state. Citizens of the ideal city are not able to rely exclusively on themselves, nor are they able to practice a multitude of crafts.…

    • 1869 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Kessler's The Myth Of The Cave
    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Kessler's The Myth Of The Cave

    The goal of education is to drag every man as far out of the cave as possible. Education should not aim at putting knowledge into the soul, but at turning the soul toward right desires”. The goal of the city as a whole is to educate people so they can focus on the Form of the Good (Kessler). The freed prisoner returns to the cave and tells everyone they are all trapped and everything they “see” is an illusion, “he had to contend again with those who had remained prisoners in recognizing those shadows while his sight was affected and his eyes had not settled down” (Kessler, 441). The prisoners believe his eyesight has been spoiled by his upward journey and “it was not worthwhile even to attempt to travel upward” (Kessler, 441).…

    • 1141 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Socrates 'Allegory Of The Cave'
    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Socrates 'Allegory Of The Cave'

    In the meantime, people can get more insight if they are educated by someone who has more knowledge than they do. A person who freed and dragged the prisoner out of the cave because he wants the prisoner to understand the reality of the world – the education. In the story, “Allegory of the Cave”, Socrates points out, “Now, however, if someone, using force, were to pull him [who had been freed from his chains] away from there and drag him up the cave’s rough and steep ascent and not to let go of him until he had dragged him out into the light of the sun, would not the one who had been dragged like this feel, in the process, pain and rage?” (19). That unknown person wanted the prisoner to get nearer to the real world of knowledge. He wanted the…

    • 384 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    In society today as you grow up you are taught what to do, how to act, and what you should believe in. Most people don't question how they are brought up and why things are the way they are, but Plato, a great philosopher, finds a flaw in living this way. Plato challenged people to look beyond just doing things because it is what everyone else does, he pushes to burst their bubble and presented an allegory that still today makes people question how they are living. Plato makes a very strong argument when explaining the forms of being and I believe these states of being are still relevant today. People tend to take things at face value and follow what they have been told; once they are able to leave the cave they can see images in a new light.…

    • 1762 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Republic Seven Socrates Education Analysis
    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Republic Seven Socrates Education Analysis

    Through the allegory of the cave in Republic Seven, Socrates demonstrated that the goal of education is to drag the man as far outside of the cave as possible. This allows the man to distinguish the different stages on the divided line. In the Republic Seven Socrates states, “… education is not what some people boastfully declare it to be. They presumably say they can put knowledge into souls that lack it. As if they could put sight into blind eyes.”…

    • 787 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    A Critical Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A Critical Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    However, in order for Glaucon’s and our understanding of this idea to further to the connection between “the effect of education and of the lack of it” (514a), Socrates offers his audience an allegory throughout Book VII of The Republic that has become immensely popular throughout centuries. Unlike before where Socrates would simply discuss his reasoning, The Allegory of the Cave offers a clear visual representation that critically reflects on society’s social and political themes while also making the journey up the “Divided Line” more understandable. Each element discussed in this allegory is symbolic, making it imperative that the audience pays close attention in order to fully comprehend the significance of the depicted scene. He begins by asking the listeners to “imagine human beings living in an underground, cavelike dwelling, with an entrance a long way up,…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Characteristics Of Liberal Education
    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Characteristics Of Liberal Education

    Thomas Jefferson once said, “knowledge is power, that knowledge is safety, and that knowledge is happiness.” Learning expands the mind. Plato uses a scenario in which prisoners are locked up in a cave and when one is released, he discovers the light of the world. This is a metaphor for learning and how once you have begun down that path, you do not want to go back to the cave (28). Learning is also important because it is crucial for development.…

    • 1344 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings