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It interprets the cave as a study of education (paideia) and the lack of it: not merely transferring knowledge, but turning the whole soul toward what is more real. The discussion emphasizes how education changes perspectives, enabling understanding of the intelligible world of the Forms, while also outlining the stages of liberation and ascent.",{"@graph":69,"@context":123},[70,84,106],{"@type":71,"itemListElement":72},"BreadcrumbList",[73,77,79,82],{"item":74,"name":75,"@type":76,"position":8},"https://docshare.wps.com","Home","ListItem",{"item":78,"name":9,"@type":76,"position":14},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/",{"item":80,"name":15,"@type":76,"position":81},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/literature/",3,{"item":83,"name":65,"@type":76,"position":19},"https://docshare.wps.com/document/platos-republic-an-introduction-chapter-11-the-allegory-of-the-cave-book-vii/344044/",{"url":83,"name":65,"@type":85,"image":86,"author":91,"headline":65,"publisher":94,"fileFormat":97,"inLanguage":63,"description":67,"dateModified":98,"datePublished":99,"encodingFormat":97,"isAccessibleForFree":100,"interactionStatistic":101},"DigitalDocument",{"url":87,"@type":88,"width":89,"height":90},"https://docshare.wps.com/thumbnails/platos-republic-an-introduction-chapter-11-the-allegory-of-the-cave-book-vii/344044.png","ImageObject",300,407,{"name":92,"@type":93},"4398046744996","Person",{"url":74,"name":95,"@type":96},"DocShare","Organization","application/pdf","2026-11-04","2026-09-22",true,{"@type":102,"interactionType":103,"userInteractionCount":105},"InteractionCounter",{"@type":104},"ViewAction",15,{"@type":107,"mainEntity":108},"FAQPage",[109,115,119],{"name":110,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":112},"What is the Cave Allegory in Plato’s Republic mainly about?","Question",{"text":113,"@type":114},"It is about the effect of education (paideia) and the lack of it on human nature, showing how education turns the soul toward what is more real.","Answer",{"name":116,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":117},"How does Plato contrast education with the common view of education?",{"text":118,"@type":114},"Plato says education is not simply putting knowledge into souls that lack it; its essence is turning the whole soul, ultimately toward the Form of the good.",{"name":120,"@type":111,"acceptedAnswer":121},"What happens in the first stage of the Cave Allegory?",{"text":122,"@type":114},"The cave’s residents are prisoners chained so they cannot move their bodies or crucially their heads, viewing only shadows cast by a fire and mistaking those images for reality.","https://schema.org",{"og:url":83,"og:type":125,"og:title":65,"og:site_name":95,"og:description":67},"article",{"robots":127,"canonical":83},"index,follow",{"doc_id":129,"site_id":62},344044,1790131557,{"code":4,"msg":5,"data":132},{"doc_id":129,"user_id":133,"nickname":92,"user_avatar":66,"doc_module":4,"category_id":14,"category_name":15,"doc_title":65,"doc_description":67,"doc_content":134,"file_id":135,"file_url":136,"file_type":137,"file_size":138,"view_count":105,"is_deleted":4,"is_public":8,"is_downloadable":8,"audit_status":8,"page_count":56,"language":139,"language_code":63,"site_id":62,"html_lang":63,"table_of_contents":140,"faqs":141,"seo_title":142,"seo_description":67,"update_tm":143,"read_time":144},4398046744996,"Plato’s Republic  \nAn Introduction  \nSEAN MCALEER  \n[https://www.openbookpublishers.com](https://www.openbookpublishers.com)  \n© 2020 Sean McAleer  \nThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license (CC BY 4.0) . This license allows you to share, copy, distribute and transmit the text; to adapt the text and to make commercial use of the text providing attribution is made to the authors (but not in any way that suggests that they endorse you or your use of the work) . Attribution should include the following information:  \nSean McAleer, Plato’s Republic: An Introduction (Cambridge, UK: Open Book Publishers, 2020), [https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229](https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229)  \nIn order to access detailed and updated information on the license, please visit, [https://](https://)[ ](https://)[doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229\\#copyright](doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229#copyright)  \nFurther details about CC BY licenses are available at [https://creativecommons.org/](https://creativecommons.org/)[ ](https://creativecommons.org/)[licenses/by/4.0/](licenses/by/4.0/)  \nAll external links were active at the time of publication unless otherwise stated and have been archived via the Internet Archive Wayback Machine at [https://archive.org/web](https://archive.org/web)  \nUpdated digital material and resources associated with this volume are available at [https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229\\#resources](https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0229#resources)  \nEvery effort has been made to identify and contact copyright holders and any omission or error will be corrected if notification is made to the publisher.  \nISBN Paperback: 9781800640535  \nISBN Hardback: 9781800640542  \nISBN Digital (PDF): 9781800640559  \nISBN Digital ebook (epub): 9781800640566  \nISBN Digital ebook (mobi): 9781800640573  \nISBN XML: 9781800640580  \nDOI: 10. 11647/OBP.0229  \nCover image: Anselm Feuerbach, The Symposium (1873). Berlin State Museum, Wikimedia, [https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anselm_Feuerbach_-_Das_Gastmahl._Nach_](https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Anselm_Feuerbach_-_Das_Gastmahl._Nach_)[Platon_](Platon_) ([zweite_Fassung](zweite_Fassung))[_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg](_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg). Public domain.  \nCover design by Anna Gatti.  \n11. The Allegory of the Cave Book VII  \nThe Allegory of the Cave is arguably the most famous part of the Republic. Although it is clearly related to the Sun and Divided Line analogies (indeed, Socrates explicitly connects the Cave and the Sun at 7.517bc), Plato marks its special status by opening Book VII with it, emphasizing its importance typographically, so to speak (he will do much the same thing in Book IX with the discussion of the tyrannical soul) . Although an allegory is sometimes defined as a symbolic narrative that can be interpreted as having a hidden meaning, Plato is not cagey about the Cave Allegory’s meaning: it is about‘the effect of education (παιδεία[paideia]) and the lack of it on our nature’ (7.514a) . Given how visual the allegory is, many readers will find it helpful to draw themselves a diagram of it.  \nEducation, the Allegory’s topic, is not what most people think it is, says Plato: it is not ‘putting knowledge into souls that lack it’ (7.518b) . Though education sometimes requires that kind of transmission of knowledge from teacher to student, this is not its essence, which instead is ‘turning the whole soul’ (7.518d)—turning it around, ultimately toward the Form of the good. Education as turning around is a powerful metaphor, capturing the way in which learning involves gaining new perspectives, seeing everyday things and events from new points of view. Everyone, Plato insists, is capable of education in this sense (7.518c) . But not everyone is capable of making it out of the Cave into the intelligible world of the Forms, just as not everyone is capable of winning a Nobel Prize in Physics or an Olympic medal in Figure Skating. Nonetheless,  \n© Sean McAleer, CC ","cbCaia4vM3jBL5gq","https://ap.wps.com/l/cbCaia4vM3jBL5gq","pdf",2244880,"English","# The Allegory of the Cave Book VII\n## Stages in the Cave Allegory","[{\"question\":\"What is the Cave Allegory in Plato’s Republic mainly about?\",\"answer\":\"It is about the effect of education (paideia) and the lack of it on human nature, showing how education turns the soul toward what is more real.\"},{\"question\":\"How does Plato contrast education with the common view of education?\",\"answer\":\"Plato says education is not simply putting knowledge into souls that lack it; its essence is turning the whole soul, ultimately toward the Form of the good.\"},{\"question\":\"What happens in the first stage of the Cave Allegory?\",\"answer\":\"The cave’s residents are prisoners chained so they cannot move their bodies or crucially their heads, viewing only shadows cast by a fire and mistaking those images for reality.\"}]","Plato’s Republic - An Introduction - Chapter 11 - The Allegory of the Cave - Book VII | PDF",1790052852,29]