Zak Mohamed (@Zakmohamed32) and Jacob Redmon (@jkredmon) escape a labyrinth with the power of love as they recap Book 2 Episode 2 of Avatar: The Last Airbender! They compare this hippie crooner Chong to Bob Dylan, and question whether the team truly needed the power of love to escape this cave, plus so much more!
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Despite modern evidence that these two bodies could not be the two lovers, people still visit the ornate mausoleum that houses their alleged remains. The two tombs, designed by Juan de Ávalos, depict the couple reaching out to each other in death.
Although Plato's Republic is best known for its definitive defense of justice, it also includes an equally powerful defense of philosophical education. Plato's beliefs on education, however, are difficult to discern because of the intricacies of the dialogue. Not only does Socrates (Plato's mouthpiece in the dialogue) posit two differing visions of education (the first is the education of the warrior guardians and the second is the philosopher-kings' education), but he also provides a more subtle account of education through the pedagogical method he uses with Glaucon and Adeimantus. While the dramatic context of the dialogue makes facets of the Republic difficult to grasp, in the case of education, it also provides the key to locating and understanding Socrates' true vision of education. Socrates' pedagogical approach with the interlocutors corresponds closely with his vision of the education of the philosopher-kings--an overlap which suggests that the allegory of the cave is representative of true Socratic education.
The first account of education, however, is not included in the dialogue without purpose. In accordance with the progressive, playful, philosophical education suggested by the cave analogy and the philosopher-kings' education, Socrates uses numerous varying and often conflicting ideas and images (among which is the first account of education) to gradually guide his pupils toward a personal realization of knowledge and philosophy.
Socrates says that those fit for a guardian's education must by nature be "philosophic, spirited, swift, and strong" (376 c). The guardians must be lovers of learning like "noble puppies" who determine what is familiar and foreign by "knowledge and ignorance" (376 b). Unlike the philosopher-kings appearing later in the book, these philosophically natured guardians approve only of that with which they are already familiar and they attack whatever is new. Although Socrates says potential guardians must have a certain disposition, the impressionability of the ideal nature suggests that they must only be bodily suited to the physical aspects of the job since they will be instilled with the other necessary qualities through education.
Now that Glaucon eagerly wants to know everything about the good, Socrates tries to explain the divided line (510-511). Socrates skillfully explains until Glaucon grasps the concept and is able to make an account of it for himself. Socrates then spontaneously progresses to the cave analogy in order to explain the process of coming to know the good by means of education. He says, "Next, then, make an image of our nature in its education and want of education" (514a). Socrates describes a cave in which humans are chained from birth facing a wall. Behind them, puppet-masters carry figurines which cast shadows on the wall in front of the prisoners. Because they know nothing else, the prisoners assume the shadows to be the extent of reality--but what they see and hear is actually only a small segment of the intelligible world. Glaucon easily grasps the idea behind the analogy and is immediately intrigued by the image, saying "It's a strange image and strange prisoners you're telling of" (515a). For the reader, the image of the cave quickly evokes the memory of Socrates' earlier false tales and noble lies, and it is evident that the new education is meant to free the prisoners from their false opinions and convictions, as opposed to chaining them within the cave as did the earlier education.
Socrates next reveals why philosophical education is often resisted and how educational enlightenment is progressive. He shows Glaucon what would happen if a prisoner was unchained and allowed to leave the cave and see reality. At first, he would be pained and disoriented by the foreign sights. When told that his experience in the cave was not entirely real, he would rebel--and not without reason (515d). If he tried to look at his new surroundings and the sun directly after leaving the dark cave, he would be blinded and would want to return to the comfort of his familiar past surroundings (515e). Socrates asserts that if someone were to drag him "away from there by force along the rough, steep, upward way, and didn't let him go before he had dragged him out into the light of the sun" (516a), the prisoner would fight and be resentful, and even then, would not be able to see everything at once. Instead, his eyes would adjust slowly. First he would see shadows, then reflections in water, then things themselves, then the night's sky, and finally, the sun--which is an image of the good and what is (516b). But once he focuses on what is, he will be happier than ever before and will never want to return to the cave (516e-c). Furthermore, if he did try to return to the cave and help the other prisoners, they would hate him, calling him corrupt and delusional because their reality is still limited to the shadows in the cave (517a). Through this powerful image of the cave, Socrates shows Glaucon the good and suggests how it is to be obtained. The good is beyond perceived reality and is hard to see, but once the good is understood, it is clear that it "is the cause of all that is right and fair in everything," and must be possessed and understood by prudent rulers (517c).
After convincing Glaucon that escaping the cave and becoming a philosopher is advantageous, Socrates returns to more practical political matters. He says that good guardians must not be prisoners nor can they be philosophers who selfishly stay outside of the cave. Instead, they must escape the cave, be educated in the good through philosophy (521c), and then return to the cave to rule and enlighten others (519d). Since the philosopher-kings are still to be warriors, their education must still be useful for warlike men. The previous account of education, however, is incomplete because gymnastics and music only teach habits by example (521e-522b). Thus, Socrates revises the prior education by introducing the study of numbers/calculations, geometry, and cubes. Not only is mathematics useful for practical matters, but its abstractness causes students to exercise their intellect and ask questions about what really is. Socrates says of calculation, "It leads the soul powerfully upward and compels it to discuss numbers themselves" (525d). The study of complex, elusive concepts pushes one to study what is permanent and perfect. Dialectics are also to be studied. Reasoning through questioning/answering and exchanging arguments teaches how to give accounts of one's self and what one knows, which helps identify the good in oneself and the good in the world.
At age twenty, gymnastic education will cease and the best students will be chosen to learn an overview of their studies and how they interrelate with each other and the good. Those who excel in their studies, war, and other duties will be chosen at age thirty to be tested in dialectics to determine "who is able to release himself from the eyes and the rest of sense and go to what which is in itself and accompanies truth" (437d). Remarkably, in the guardian's education, no one, not even a judge, was permitted exposure to the truth at this young an age. Socrates, however, still recognizes the danger of the full truth. He holds that students must not be allowed free reign with dialectics at too young an age, because, instead of using their newfound knowledge for the good of the city, they might be tempted to forsake the city's laws and conventions in favor of more base pursuits (538a-c). Thus, the young must not be allowed to toy with debate because they will undoubtedly misuse the art of dialectics, leading to the dissolution of their beliefs and the defamation of philosophy. Older, educated men, however, "will discuss and consider the truth rather than the one who plays and contradicts for the sake of the game" (539d). When they are thirty-five, those well-trained in dialectics will be required to go back into the cave to hold offices, and testing will continue. Finally, at the age of fifty, those who have excelled in everything will perceive the good and will alternate philosophizing and ruling the city. Socrates says,
Thus, through a rigorous philosophical education, the city unshackles individuals and leads them out of the cave of ignorance and into the light of knowledge so that they are eventually able to go back into the cave and teach others. Glaucon protests the unfairness of forcing the liberated philosophers to go back into the cave (519d), but Socrates insists that, although it is unappealing, philosophers will serve the state because they are indebted for their own enlightenment, love knowledge, and accept that the good of the city is more important than their own happiness. Further, Socrates says it is better that the philosopher-kings rule unenthusiastically or else they will become greedy for power which leads to tyranny (520d).
When Socrates introduces the cave analogy, one cannot help recognizing the similarities between it and his own actions in the dialogue. Finally, it seems as though Socrates is being genuine. The philosopher's descent into the cave hearkens back the first line of the book, "I went down to the Piraeus yesterday with Glaucon" (327a). It is now clear that Socrates himself is down in the cave, somewhat against his will,2 attempting to help the interlocutors turn from the dark of ignorance to the light of knowledge and realize what is. Through his refutation of the opinions of Glaucon, Adeimantus, Cephalus, Polemarchus, and Thrasymachus, Socrates battles the city's conventions. Also, because the dialogue is meant to be a defense of philosophy and an apology of Socrates, the education of real philosophers seems more in tune with the theme of the book than the education of "noble-puppy" guardians. After Socrates unveils the cave analogy, in retrospect the whole dialogue leading up to the cave appears to be an example of Socrates' pedagogical method. Socrates' ludicrous examples, different images, and persistent questioning are clearly intended to help guide his pupils upward through the levels of reality to the highest, truest knowledge of what is. 2ff7e9595c
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