what is the meaning of platos allegory to health educators

Education and Plato's Allegory of the Cave

The apologue of the cavern is one of the almost famous passages in the history of Western philosophy. It is a short excerpt from the beginning of volume seven of Plato's book, The Republic. Plato tells the allegory in the context of educational activity; it is ultimately almost the nature of philosophical education, and it offers an insight into Plato's view of education. Socrates is the main character in The Republic, and he tells the apologue of the cave to Glaucon, who is 1 of Plato's brothers.

In volume vii of The Republic, Socrates tells Glaucon, who is his interlocutor, to imagine a grouping of prisoners who have been chained since they were children in an underground cave. Their hands, feet, and necks are chained then that they are unable to motion. All they can run into in front end of them, for their unabridged lives, is the back wall of the cave. Socrates says:

Some way off, behind and college up, a fire is burning, and between the fire and the prisoners to a higher place them runs a road, in front of which a curtain wall has been built, like a screen at boob shows betwixt the operators and their audience, above which they show their puppets.[1]

So, there are men, who laissez passer by the walkway and carry objects fabricated of rock backside the curtain-wall, and they make sounds to become along with the objects. These objects are projected onto the back wall of the cavern for the prisoners to see. The prisoners come with names for the objects; they are interpreting their world intelligible to them. Hence, it is almost as though the prisoners are watching a puppet show for their entire lives. This is what the prisoners think is real because this is all they have ever experienced; reality for them is a boob show on the wall of a cave, created by shadows of objects and figures.

Socrates goes on to say that 1 of the prisoners somehow breaks free of those bondage. Then he is forced to plough around and await at the fire, which represents enlightenment; recognising your ignorance. The light of the fire hurts his eyes and makes him immediately desire to turn dorsum effectually and "retreat to the things which he could see properly, which he would think really clearer than the things existence shown him."[2] In other words, Socrates is stating that the prisoner does not want to progress in the way he sees things, and his understanding of reality. However, after his optics arrange to the firelight, reluctantly and with great difficulty he is forced to progress out of the cave and into the sunlight, which is a painful process; this represents a different state of understanding. Plato uses light as a metaphor for our agreement, and our ability to excogitate of the truth. So the prisoner progressed past the realm of the firelight, and now into the realm of sunlight. The first thing he would notice easiest to wait at is the shadows, and then reflections of men and objects in the h2o, and so finally the prisoner is able to wait at the sun itself which he realises is the source of the reflections. When he finally looks at the lord's day he sees the truth of everything and begins to feel sorry for his swain prisoner's who are still stuck in the cave. And so, he goes back into the cave and tries to tell his boyfriend prisoners the truth nearly reality, but the prisoners call up that he is dangerous because he has come back and upset everyone's conformist opinion nearly things. The prisoners do non desire to be free considering they are comfortable in their own ignorance, and they are hostile to people who want to give them more data. Therefore, Plato is suggesting that "your philosophical journey sometimes may pb your thinking in directions that order does non support."[3]

The allegory of the cavern is an extended metaphor and it provides an insight into Plato'southward view of education. The people in the cave represent united states of america equally a lodge, and Plato is suggesting that we are the prisoners in the cavern looking at just the shadows of things. Yet, the cavern as well represents the country of humans; we all begin in the cave.[iv] According to Ronald Nash, Plato believed that:

Similar the prisoners chained in the cave, each human beingness perceives a physical world that is only a poor faux of a more real globe. Simply every so often, one of the prisoners gets free from the shackles of sense experience, turns around, and sees the calorie-free![5]

Plato uses the cave to symbolise a concrete globe; a earth in which things are not e'er what they seem to be, and there is a lot more than to it than people think there is. The outside world is represented as the world of ideas, thoughts, and reality — by the earth of Ideas, Plato is talking nearly the not-physical forms, and that these non-concrete forms represent a higher, more accurate reality. In other words, "according to Plato, our senses are simply picking upward shadows of the true reality, the reality of forms or ideas. This reality can only exist accurately discerned through reason, not the physical senses."[6]

The process of progressing out of the cave is about getting educated and it is a hard process; in fact it requires help and sometimes force. Here Plato is implying that when getting an education there is a struggle involved. He is telling us about our struggle to encounter the truth, and to be critical thinkers. We want to resist; ignorance is bliss in many ways because knowing the truth can be a painful feel, so in some ways information technology is easier to be ignorant. The person who is leaving the cave is questioning his beliefs, whereas the people in the cave just accustomed what they were shown, they did non remember about or question it; in other words, they are passive observers.

The allegory of the cave shows us the relation betwixt instruction and truth. For Plato, the essential function of instruction is not to requite the states truths merely to dispose us towards the truth. But not all instruction need necessarily be most the truth. It tin can be seen every bit capacity building:

1 purpose of the allegory of the cave is to testify that there are unlike levels of man sensation, ascending from sense perception to a rational knowledge of the Forms and eventually to the highest knowledge of all, the knowledge of the Good.[7]

According to Plato, education is seeing things differently. Therefore, as our conception of truth changes, so volition our pedagogy. He believed that nosotros all have the capacity to acquire but not everyone has the want to acquire; desire and resistance are important in education because you take to exist willing to learn the truth although it will exist difficult to accept at times.

The people who were conveying the objects across the walkway, which projected shadows on the wall, represent the authority of today, such as the government, religious leaders, teachers, the media etc. — they influence the opinions of people and determine the beliefs and attitudes of people in gild. The person who forced the prisoner out of the cave and guided them could be interpreted as a instructor. Socrates compares a teacher to a midwife, for case, a midwife does not give birth for the person, yet a midwife has seen a lot of people requite nativity and coached a lot of people through it, similarly, a instructor does not go an education for the student, merely tin guide students towards the truth:

Socrates as a instructor is a "midwife" who does non himself bring forth truth, simply rather by means of his questioning causes the learner to rationally apprehend, or give nascence to, as it were, truths that were already gestating inside.[viii]

Then, the teacher in the allegory of the cave guided the prisoner from the darkness and into the light (light represents truth); education involves seeing the truth. Plato believed that you have to desire to learn new things; if people do not desire to learn what is true, then you cannot strength them to learn. The prisoner had to have the want and persistence to learn. In the same way, students themselves take to be active — nobody can get an education for y'all; you lot have to get it for yourself, and this volition sometimes be a painful process. A teacher can fill students with facts, but information technology is upward to the student to understand them. According to Plato, a teacher's task is to pb you lot somewhere, and to make you question your beliefs and so that you can come to your own conclusion most things; thus, education is a personal journey.

Plato makes clear that instruction where students are passively receiving cognition from professors is wrong. What the apologue has shown is that:

[…] the power and chapters of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, then to the instrument of noesis can but by the motility of the whole soul exist turned from the world of becoming into that of being […][ix]

Plato says that philosophical pedagogy requires a reorientation of the whole self; it is a transformative experience. He believed that education is not only a matter of changing ideas or changing some practices, it is a process that transforms ones entire life because it involves the turning around of the soul. Education is the movement of the self, the transformation of the self. For case, in order for the prisoners to acquire they had to not but turn their head around, only likewise turn their whole trunk around which included their soul, and passions in their mind, to educate themselves.

Therefore, didactics is a complete transformation of ones value system; "it requires a 'turning effectually' and 'ascent' of the soul — what we might telephone call a spiritual awakening, or the finding and following of a spiritual path."[10] By this, Plato means seeing the world in a different fashion, in the correct way.

In conclusion, Plato appears to be suggesting that we need to strength ourselves to want to learn about the truth. Seeking knowledge is non an like shooting fish in a barrel journeying; it is a struggle, and once you see the world differently you cannot become back. For case, when the prisoner turned effectually he realised that the shadows on the wall were less real than the objects in the back that were casting the shadows; what he thought was real all his life was just an illusion. If the prisoner did not question his beliefs most the shadows on the wall, he would never have discovered the truth. Hence, Plato believes that disquisitional thinking is vital in education. When you try to tell others about the truth, they will not always accept it, every bit people are ofttimes happy in their ignorance. In the allegory of the cave the prisoner had to exist forced to learn at times; for Plato, instruction in any class requires resistance, and with resistance comes force.

In a way Plato manipulates the reader equally he implies that we are prisoners, however we believe that nosotros are not prisoners — this makes us desire to learn and search for the truth. It is easier not to claiming ourselves, and non be challenged by others. Information technology is easier to just sit down at that place and watch the puppet prove, and not question your behavior. It is difficult to turn around, however the rewards of making that journeying are great, as the apologue of the cavern tells the states.

For Plato, education is personal and it is the transition from darkness to light, where light represents noesis and truth. He believed that everyone is capable of learning, merely information technology is downward to whether the person desires to acquire or not. The people in the cave needed to desire an education with their whole body and soul; thus, education is the formation of character, which involves the turning around of the soul.

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[1] Plato: The Commonwealth 514b

[2] Plato: The Democracy 515e

[3] Manuel Velasquez: Philosophy: A Text with Readings p. 6.

[4] Julia Annas: An Introduction to Plato's Republic pp. 252–253

[5] Ronald H. Nash: Life's Ultimate Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy p. 94.

[6] Kenneth Allan: Gimmicky Social and Sociological Theory: Visualizing Social Worlds p. viii.

[seven] Ronald H. Nash: Life's Ultimate Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy p. 95.

[viii] Ann Ward: Socrates: Reason or Unreason equally the Foundation of European Identity p. 171.

[9] Plato: The Allegory of the Cave p. 12.

[x] Carr et al: Spirituality, Philosophy and Pedagogy p. 98.

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