Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Diana Botello
English 120-026
Final Draft
Julie Bryant
12/8/14
Meaning of Education
Education has always been a very big issue, whether its in extremely poor or very
wealthy countries it still matters the same. The meaning behind education can be different in
terms of what is more important such as the career you choose, or it can be as simple as knowing
enough to defend yourself in life. In the reading of Platos Republic and Platos cave analogy
there is an abstract way of thinking about education because it uses prisoners as examples. We
are not used to comparing prisoners to education, perhaps because we believe everyone has the
opportunity and a right to an education. Analyzing Platos reading and understanding his
message was injustice and then relating it to his early mentor Socrates a wise philosopher, makes
us more aware of the education issues.
According to Platos Republic The men have been chained foot and neck since
childhood in this case, it is important to see that these were men. This is a very important
statement because even though it might not mean anything, it helps with the development in
understanding the story. Plato in his early years was a student of Socrates who was a Greek
philosopher sent to be executed for corrupting the youth and disrespecting the gods of Athens.
The interesting thing about Socrates was that he did not want to let the Athenians kill him since
he hated the law there, so he decided to commit suicide by drinking hemlock, a poison. Socrates
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made history and is now known as one of the wisest philosophers who ever lived because he was
not interested in the law. Men are very important in Platos story because he is trying to make a
point about injustice against them, he is in a way reliving Socrates in this story. Putting in his
experiences of what he felt was wrong in Socrates defense.
When reading Republic we can see it is not only about Socrates but it was also about
Plato himself, after being a student of Socrates he found out a lot about what was real of life and
what his city (Athens) was not letting him know. We can see that when he writes And if forced
to look at the light itself, it would hurt his eyes and hed turn away and run back to the things he
could see, and believe that they were in reality clearer than the ones pointed out. Now imagine
Plato waiting to see how the trial of his mentor Socrates played out and then realizing they had
done an injustice to him. This is a prisoner who was unable to understand and then suddenly
realized the truth. Plato was furious and at the same time scared because after hearing from
Socrates how unfair his city was and then seen it through his own eyes he was able to understand
how wise his mentor was. Education is about learning new things and sometimes those people
who teach us end up changing our lives. The light in what he wrote meant the truth about his city
since they were unfair and he had the chance to see that, the eyes hurting was his pain after
realizing what kind of unjust city he lived in. After understanding what Plato learned and how
unfair his city was for not letting their people have more freedom to educate themselves about
democracy and religion we can link this to Socrates and Platos life in Athens.
Platos overall message about education was injustice, there was injustice about freedom
of speech and injustice of learning. He is describing the struggle some people have to go through
when they have learned something new, in this case learning too much is dangerous and is
treated very seriously by those who only want the power to themselves. The prisoners in the
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story are those who are forced to do as they are told and despite their knowledge they have to
keep quiet those are the chains in which they are held. An important message in the video the
Claymation is how they were left to suffer in a place where people could clearly see them. The
prisoners could not see but the people walking by could see what happens when they disobey the
law. This part also has to do with Socrates because when they were going to execute him, the
Athenians wanted to make sure all the people knew about this. That is because they wanted to
prove to anyone who disagreed at how Athens was run, would be better off dead. The Athenians
wanted to guarantee full obedience from their people ones and for all. When it comes to
education there are many who will bring you down and many who will try to prove you wrong.
They are the chains and they will do anything in their power to blind you. Platos wants to make
a point that no matter what your perception is of life, always choose the truth. Learn to observe
and think outside the box so that you know everything that is going on around you.
Perhaps most of us believe or believed at some point in our lives that education was easy
to obtain and everyone could get it if they worked hard to find it. This is not true in some places
of the world. In these places where education is no longer enforced and the people are prisoners,
they do not have the freedom to think outside the box. They have limited access to important
things such as religion, and political issues because the people who rule them do not want them
to seek other choices. When we understand the root of Platos passion for writing we begin to
understand the meaning of the story. This meaning of keeping our eyes wide open and
questioning our surroundings makes us think what our purpose of learning is. Once we have been
educated we will see the injustice in our lives and presume to do something about it, like the
prisoners who were released from the cave and tried to educate the others. Though they were not
able to change anything they still wanted to spread the word and tell the truth about what they
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had learned. The career we will eventually choose and the job we will work in for the rest of our
lives says something about us. We have to make sure that, that something is what we want to be
known for. Speaking up and not being afraid to be different is key because then and only then
will we find out about what is really meant by being educated.
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Works Cited
"Plato." Infoplease The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 2012. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.
The Cave: An Adaption of Plato's Allegory in Clay. Prod. Bullhead Entertainment. YouTube.
YouTube, 18 Apr. 2008. Web. 17 Sept. 2014.
Larson, Raymond, ed. The Republic Plato. Crofts Classics Series. 174-183. Print.
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Reflections A, B and C
Rhetorical Situation and Genre
Part A was researching that made up the story and the meaning behind it. It order to have
clear ideas there had to be good resources used and my resources worked well. The sources were
good evidence and made my essay more interesting and a lot broader because it helped bring in a
story behind why Plato wrote this story and that made the meaning more understandable. For this
research paper there had to be two outside sources aside from the reading and video, looking at the
evidence to prove my point I was able to find a lot of claims and have a good analyzes of the
Republic. My audience for this essay are my classmates, instructor and anyone else who might be
interested in the reading The Republic. My audience would be interested in my essay because there
is lots to learn. Not only are they going to learn about the reading but also a little history.