Lesson Plan in Plato’s Philosophy

I. Objectives:
At the end of class session, students are able to:

a. see the invaluable contribution of Plato’s Philosophy in his Allegory of the Cave.
b. reflect on the nature of man’s existence in the truth of being human.
c. understand the process of education in Platonic perspective.

II. Subject Matter:

“Plato’s Philosophy: The Allegory of the Cave”

Reference:
Maboloc, Christopher Ryan B. The Pursuit of Being Human. (Davao City: SMKC
Printshoppe, 2012).

III. Lesson Proper:

Preliminaries
 Prayer
 Checking of Attendance

A. Activity
The teacher introduces himself to the class. He starts to discuss about Plato’s Philosophy
in his Allegory of the Cave and the course objectives. (The teacher will provide copy of
the philosophical reading entitled The Allegory of the Cave.)

Good morning, class!

Good morning, sir.

Today, we will discuss Plato’s Philosophy

in his allegory of the cave. But first, we will
divide the class into 2 groups. Group 1 will
be labeled as Material world or world of matter
while group two will be labeled as Formal World or
world of forms. Are you ready?
Yes, sir.

What you are going to do now is to write any

Ideas or examples that will describe the two worlds.
If you belong to group one, write the things that will describe
Or define the material world. If belong to group two, write the
Things that will describe the formal world.
Am I clear class?
Yes, sir.
What have you noticed class?

Here, our explanation begins with Plato’s theory of truth. For Plato, reality divides into two worlds – the
world of forms and the world of objects. Form refers to those changeless, eternal and non-material
essences or patterns of which the actual visible objects we see are mere copies. For Plato, permanence
is the basic criterion of reality. The world of the senses for him is unreal. Truth belongs to the mind or
intellect. Who is man in this scheme of reality? Man, according to Plato, is his soul.

For Plato, forms are separated from concrete things so that they exist apart from the things that we see.
Forms have independent existence; they persist even though particular things perish. Plato writes that
“form is the cause of the essence of a thing.” Plato thinks that this world that we inhabit is not real. This
bodily existence that we have is a mere imprisonment of the soul. The reality of being human dwells in
man’s pure soul, and as such, the body is no more than a distraction in the search for the truth. The
desire of the human body, perpetually corrupt, deny man the true sense of justice. Justice in this regard
exists as an ideal, just as real beauty exists beyond the realm of empirical phenomena.

Thus, what is beautiful and what is just are in the ideal world. The form of beauty is its perfection and
the form of justice is perfect justice. Beautiful things or the human forms of justice are imperfect and as
such, these cannot be considered as the really real. It can be said that beautiful things in their
multiplicity point toward a beauty from which everything else derives its beauty. Beauty in the human
world is a mere imitation of real beauty, ephemeral and untrue.

Here, the very concept of “one and the many” explains why reality is beyond this material world. The
universal form is that which the many, or the sense-particulars, correspond to. The form of beauty, for
instance, is permanent and unchanging. The many instances of what is beautiful are subject to change
or becoming. Beauty in its truest sense is one and is represented by many of its instances, e.g., “a
beautiful house”, “a beautiful body”. Beauty is some kind of light that shines forth which is found or
made manifest in its many instances. But in terms of what is permanent and essential, what is beautiful
or what is beautiful or what is just is beyond what we find in the world of men. People change, some
seeming friends turn into stones. The real gems of friendship, the true and the everlasting, are ones who
rise above this worldliness.

Plato speaks of an ideal world because he found the world of men, especially in the political realm, as
one that is constantly subject to tensions and uncertainty. The City State of the world of politics is
characterized by unstable moral behavior and so Plato seeks to locate what is enduring concept of the
good in the ideal form of the State.

Most people, it seems, are imprisoned in the world of sensual objects. In this regard, they confuse the
sensual object with the really real. To say that reality is eternal means that the essence of truth is
indestructible. It is essential to know what is true, and therefore, what is important to us beyond the
world of sensory-perception. Human action, being sensual, is encumbered by man’s very limitations.
Man fails to recognize that only the truth is enduring. The world of men is governed by temporary
pleasures and this corrupts the very essence of our humanity. Justice remains elusive for man is chained
to a life of caprice and desire.

Let us bring the discussion then to the realm of political leadership. Leaders in the State make decisions
based on their prejudices or biases. However, a just leader is one who truly sees justice as foundational.
It is a matter of principle. It is in this regard that The Republic of Plato speaks of true justice and the ideal
of a government. As the basis for what is due to every human being, justice is not subject to the very self
serving limitations of the leader. A leader acts justly, in this regard, not because it is what he desires for
himself. He acts on the basis of an ideal of justice. Plato writes in The Republic:

“Until philosophers are kings, or the kings of the world have the spirit and power of philosophy,
political greatness and wisdom meet in one…..”

It is part of our political existence that corruption is something that persists. Some of our leaders are
perpetually corrupt. It is a matter of a fact, however, that corruption is not only an individual act; it can
be systemic. Certain structures deny persons the real opportunity for growth and self-realization, e.g.
elections favor the rich, the civil service does not give equal chances to people, especially the disabled,
or some social functions do not give voice to the marginalized sectors.

Thus, we, the people, may show some signs of resignation. But we have t continue with the drive to
search for the truth. We have to continue our justice. This is because there is no end to the search for
the truth, for the truth, like being, is inexhaustible. The light at the end of the journey is therefore a real
possibility. It is a long, tedious process.

The Truth of Being

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato writes a metaphor for the true nature or meaning of knowledge. For
Plato, to understand what being or reality is, the human mind must go beyond or rise above sense
objects towards the knowledge of universal essences. Just as the sun in the story was at once the source
of light and life, so also, says Plato, the form of the good is the universal author of all things beautiful
and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this world, and the source of truth and the reason of
the other.

Now, there is one ultimate question to be faced: which matters most – body or soul? Plato invites us to
detach ourselves from the world of the senses. For Plato, the body does not have a privileged place in
life for the body dwells in the domain of objects. The body acts as a constraint ot limitation on what the
intellect or the rational human soul can accomplish.

The story in the Allegory of the Cave thus speaks of the human world and the fact that people only know
the truth on the surface. In the text, the prisoners recognize as reality only the shadows formed in the
wall. The prisoners recognize as reality only the shadows formed in the wall. The prisoners mistake the
shadows for reality. For them, only the objects of the senses are real.

Freedom from superficial knowledge means being liberated from the prison of the cave. Plato says that
“the impact of the radiance of the sun upon his eyes would be so painful that he would be unable to see
any of the things that he was now told were real. The movement from ignorance to knowledge is a
painful process. Inside, prisoners will still maintain that the shadows are more real than what the freed
prisoner has seen from outside the cave. Ignorance in this regard is something that is hard to cure
because when people are so used to the things they believe in, they find it hard to change an old
perspective.

The experience of liberation would be used by the prisoner to conclude that the sun is what makes
things visible. The sun represents the truth. This is the truth of being. Being or reality here resides in the
world of ideas or forms, and the freedom of the prisoner is the ascent of the human mind to the truth of
things. It can be said that the freed prisoner would pity those who have not been freed from the
habitation of the cave. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave suggests that most of us dwell in the darkness of the
cave, that we have oriented our thoughts around the blurred world of shadows.

The prison is our world of sight and the fire inside the cave is the sun. The darkness of the cave would
blind people from the truth, suggesting that people believe in things that they have been used to. And,
in the world of objects, the absence of the truth of being, of the light, deprives us of the truth. The
senses are influenced by temporary or ephemeral things or objects, and we confuse them for the truth.
Man is tasked to reflect beyond the world of the senses and rise to the level of the mind or intellect.
Thus,
This task appears enormous but Plato does not think that such a task is impossible. Careful
education and training can eventually condition the human soul to direct its energy and efforts towards
lofty ideals.

The world that we know is burdened by certain obstacles to truth. Our desire for worldly possessions,
for instance, undermines our search for that which is truly indestructible – basic principles and human
values. The conversion from ignorance to knowledge means a turning around from darkness into the
light.

For Plato, it is the function of education to lead people out of the cave into the world of light. Education
in this regard lifts us to see not only with our senses but clearly with our mind. Education enables us to
understand the world beyond its mere materiality. Basic principles and human values are indestructible
and they are more than the mere pleasure that material wealth brings.

Plato adds that “education is not simply, a matter of putting knowledge into a person’s soul that does
not possess it, any more than the vision involves putting sight into blind eyes.” The idea is to value the
intellect and free the self from imprisonment of sensory perception. Education is a matter of conversion
or a complete turning around from the world of appearance to the world of reality. This speaks of the
fact that education is a process of recollection of what is already in the human soul.