Education is a process that involves many stages. As we progress through our lives, we learn by observing our environment and the people around us. Plato’s allegory of a cave shows the profound effects of education on humans. When one prisoner is released from his bonds, he begins to move through the other stages, by learning. He realizes that the shadows were nothing more than reflections from light cast on the people walking behind the wall. When the prisoner is dragged out of the cave, he discovers what true reality is, in the form of the “visible world”, or one that has trees, flowers, houses, etc. He achieves ultimate ‘intellect’ when he realizes that the sun is the cause of all of these things and figures out the stages he had to pass through to reach it were all in the process of learning. The goal of education was to push this prisoner out of the cave as far as possible, so out of curiosity and wonder, we would keep going further, until he could go no more.

This allegory shows the human condition justly. It shows that when humans are born, they start out at the lowest state of learning, with no education, but only an imagination, which allows them to perceive whatever they see as reality. This can directly be related to the prisoners chained in the dark cave, for whom reality is nothing more than the shadows they can see straight ahead of them, which is ultimately made by fire and people carrying statues walking behind the wall. However, as we grow, we learn to make sense of our surroundings and slowly discover reality. We learn as we interact with the world around us, and thus pass through many stages of learning, as we get older. This can be seen as the prisoner who is freed progresses through the cave. Those who truly discover reality and achieve wisdom can said to be truly educated, and can directly related to the prisoner who went out of the cave and discovered the world, and the sun as being the cause of it. However, is there an end, to which education can ultimately lead us, or does the process of education keep on going throughout our entire lives? Well according to Plato, there is. He defines “the limit to our inquires”, or the ultimate thing we strive for, as being “the form of good.” This is the ultimate object of knowledge, or the state or reason and truth. This man, who has been pushed to achieve ‘the form of good’ as Plato says, is a ‘philosopher-king’. In Plato’s scenario, one who is prone to lean towards good can only be pushed to become a philosopher-king so that he may come back into the cave and rule all the other citizens, for only a man with no desire to rule can rule well and justly.

Reading this allegory made me remember a concept from Hinduism known as ‘moksha,’ which can directly be related to the allegory. Moksha is a concept of Hinduism, which according to the Britannica Concise Encyclopedia is “the ultimate spiritual goal, the soul’s release from the bonds of transmigration. The soul, once entered upon a bodily existence, remains trapped in a chain of successive rebirths until it has attains the perfection or enlightenment that allows it release. The methods by which release is sought and attained differ from one philosophical school to the next, but most schools consider moksha to be the highest purpose of life.” For many people who practice Hinduism, moksha is “the form of good” which is sought after and is the highest thing to achieve. As Hindus believe in reincarnation, the many cycles of life can be directly compared to the stages of learning in the cave. The most basic stage of imagination would perhaps to a Hindu be the lowest cycles of life, or ones in which they are in the lowest caste, as Hindus believe in a caste system to determine karma or deeds of previous lives. Being in the highest caste, such as of being a ‘Brahmin’ may perhaps be the sign of progressing through the cave. Of course, the ultimate goal would be moksha, or achieving a state of liberation of the life and death cycle, and of enlightenment or knowing everything. Some people who apparently achieve this state come back to preach the world, like the philosopher-kings do, and they are known as ‘gurus’.

-Shalika Mugrai