Plato's The Simile Of The Cave From The Republic

There are multiple suggestions on how to live an authentic and purposeful life in Plato’s “The Simile of the Cave” from The Republic. In the opening paragraph of the allegory, it begins painting a picture of prisoners who are tightly secured within their chains. “In this chamber are men who have been prisoners there since they were children, their legs and necks being so fastened that they can only look straight ahead of them and cannot turn their heads.” Through reading the description that these men in the cave can only look one way, one can infer that it symbolizes that these men are lacking a diverse perspective, and the only thing they can look at are the shadows on the wall. They have grown up only facing one way, rather than being able …show more content…
“‘Remaining in the upper world, and refusing to return again to the prisoners in the cave below and share their labours and rewards, whether trivial or serious.’ ‘But surely,’ he protested, ‘that will not be fair. We shall be compelling them to live a poorer life than they might live.’” This is suggesting that those who have reached a higher level of intelligence should teach the others otherwise it would be depriving them of a life they could have lived. The purpose of the more intelligent person is to relate their experiences and knowledge to the others or else they will only bask in this new life they have achieved, which would now be pointless. The only person who would benefit from it is themselves, which wouldn’t serve a purpose to the greater good. Plato’s “The Simile of The Cave” advises that in order to live a purposeful life we shouldn’t be closed-minded, we should look behind what we already know and achieve more intelligence, and we should tell others of new pieces of information rather than only enjoying it ourselves and depriving them of that