Analogies In Plato's Republic

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In Plato’s Republic, Book VI, Plato uses a series of analogies to help him define The Good and it’s meaning in order to defend the notion that only philosophers can know real knowledge and the ultimate goal is to reach wisdom. He does this by illustrating three analogies: The Sun Analogy, The Divided Line, and The Cave Analogy. Each analogy is used to build upon each other in order to guide the dialogue closer to the definition of the Good and also leads us to an interpretation of the relationship of wisdom and reality. The first analogy used by Plato in order to do this is The Sun Analogy. This analogy is used in order to try to define the meaning of good and more importantly the Good. Plato uses the analogy because it would be impossible to define it alone. In The Sun Analogy, Socrates compares the sun (visible world) to the Good (world of ideas). He supports this by further demonstrating that the sun makes things, such as a tree, more visible as the Good makes ideas or forms more better known. Further, the sun not only allows things to be visible but also gives things life such as plants or a tree as the Good makes the other ideas real. In this case our eyes are like our minds and soul. The eyes cannot see visible things without the sun as the mind cannot know the forms without the Good. This tells us that Plato believes that everything is related back to the good. Therefore, the Good is the source of truth, knowledge, and all …show more content…
This wisdom can only be achieved by knowing all reality which can only be done by knowing both the visible world and the world of forms. Finally, by knowing what good is and by defining what the Good is, philosophers and humans are able to come closer to knowing what the first cause of all reality

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