Throughout the history of western philosophy, men have been attempting to understand the complexities of the human soul. In Confessions, Augustine depicts the well-ordered soul in terms of conversion to Roman Catholic Christianity. For Augustine, the will plays a major role in this process. He repeatedly states that he was taken out of his sinfulness once he decided to align his will with God’s will (Augustine bk. 8, ch. 10, sec. 22; bk. 11, ch. 1, sec. 1).
Augustine divides sin into three categories: lust of the flesh, pride of life, and lust of the eyes (bk. , ch. 8, sec. 16). He argues that these three sins all exhibit a disagreement between God’s will and his own. In his biography, Augustine reveals that he experiences all forms of these sins at some point throughout his life. Despite the fact that Augustine believes evil can only arise from non-being, he does not argue that these sins or our wills are nonexistent substances. All being innately is good, true, and beautiful since it comes from God. Therefore, the sin lies in the use of these beings rather than the beings themselves (bk. 4, ch. 12, sec. 18).
Remarkably, Plato argues something similar in is famous allegory of the cave, despite the lack of Christianity. His use of images in the cave compared to images in the natural world show that man can view unaccurate forms of reality, which leads to a misperception of reason (Plato bk. 7, 515b-516e). In Book Seven of the Republic, Plato describes the man slowly coming into reason as he exits the cave and spends time in the natural world. He highlights the decision to exit the cave and to follow in the direction of the light of reason as an active choice made by the individual himself (bk. , 515a-516b).
However, Plato does not claim that this is the only thing that eads man to a proper understanding of reason. Plato asserts the power of “ananke,” or compulsion, that imposes itself upon an individual (bk. 7, 515a-516b; . This implies a second and outside force acting upon the man that leads him to enter into truth, which is greater in power than the decision itself. Despite the fact that these two theories of personal advancement have their key differences, they also share a surprising amount of similarities that allude to some interesting verdicts concerning the soul.
Augustine correctly argues that having a true relationship with God is the only way man can rise bove his sinful nature and better himself. However, Plato is also correct to assume a higher power over man’s will. Combining these two theories together, God compels man to repent of his sins, but it is ultimately up to the man to choose whether or not to listen to God (Augustine 223; bk. 11, ch. 1, sec. 1). This view of bettering the soul highlights the importance of the will while still recognizing the power of God in conversion.
Although this argument is most similar to Augustine’s, Plato highlights some important truths in regards to false understandings of reality. He makes the distinction between real images and their shadows, which contain the form or shape of the object without its substance (Plato 226; bk. 7, 515a-516b). Since the man from the cave initially finds truth in the shadows because they closely resemble the images he was used to in the darkness, the man finds himself accepting these shadows as the truths themselves instead of pushing himself to come to a proper understanding (bk. , 515a-516b). This idea of false images is a key obstacle in the process of coming to reason and can also prohibit man from accepting God’s guidance to repentance. Plato’s Republic: The Allegory of the Cave and Analysis of the Sun Although Plato describes his view of the soul in many of his works, his perspective becomes prevalent in his allegory of the cave in the Republic. In this story, Plato describes a scenario in which a man who was trapped in a cave since his youth is finally freed of his chains and allowed to exit the cave.
Once the man’s chains are removed, he finds himself compelled to turn his head away from the shadows and towards the light behind him: “Let us suppose that one of them has been released, and compelled suddenly to stand up, and turn his neck round and walk with pen eyes towards the light; and let us suppose that he goes through all these actions with pain, and that the dazzling splendour renders him incapable of discerning these objects of which he used formerly to see the shadows.
What answer should you expect him to make if someone were to tell him that in those days he was watching foolish phantoms, but that now he is somewhat nearer to reality, and is turned towards things more real, and sees more correctly; above all, if he were to point out to him the several objects that are passing by, and question him, and compel him to answer what they are? Should you not expect him to be puzzled, and to regard his old visions as truer than the objects now forced upon his notice?..
And if he were further compelled to gaze at the light itself, would not his eyes, think you be distressed, and would he not shrink and turn away to the things which he would see distinctly, and consider them to be really clearer than the things pointed out to him? “(bk. 7, 515b-516a). Plato describes the man’s decision to turn around as a sort of compulsion. This verb, coming from the Greek word “ananke,” implies the idea that there is a second force acting upon the an in addition to his own decision or will.
Although the man’s will plays a large role in the process of turning his head and walking out of the cave, this greater force imposes itself upon the man in order to draw him out of the cave and into a greater understanding. This argument is essential to understanding Plato’s conception of the good. Despite the decision the man makes to turn towards the light, he still has his reservations. Plato claims that the man still questions the objects in reality and finds more truth in the shadows he once saw in the cave.
However, the man slowly begins to perceive and understand bjects in the natural world, starting with shadows and reflections, until he is finally able to see the truth in the objects around him. This is one of the major effects that familiarity and repetition have on individuals. Repetition for Plato is one of the actions that enables man to gradually understand higher truths. The man in the cave would not have been able to grasp objects in the world without some familiar understanding of shadows that he grew up with.
While in the cave, the man views shadows as his only realities, since they are the only objects shown to him (bk. 7, 514a-515b). By definition, shadows cannot fully express the definition or description of an object; they only reflect the form without the substance. This applies to Plato’s understanding of truths in the cave. Although shadows may represent a portion of the truth, they cannot be wholesome by definition. Because man views these shadows as his only truths before he steps out of ignorance, he finds it harder to understand their faults or shortcomings (bk. , 515a-516b).
When the man is told of his faulty grasp of reality, he initially retaliates against the true images (bk. 7, 515a-516b). However, Plato points out that the man eventually finds truth in the outside world through the shadows present there (bk. 7, 516a- e). This is where repetition comes back into this understanding. Repetition enables the man to view the small truths present in the shadows in order to understand the larger truths in the objects themselves (bk. 7, 516a-e).
Whether the shadow characterizes a distortion of an object’s semblance, misinterpretation of the object, or simply a lack of substance, it represents an incomplete understanding of a universal truth. An interesting distinction to point out between shadows in the ave and shadows in reality is the difference in the way they were formed. While in the cave, the shadows are formed by men holding images made of rocks and wood in front of a fire elevated above the men in the allegory (bk. 7, 514a-515b).
This is strikingly different from the way in which shadows are formed in reality. Plato intentionally uses the sun as the natural light source in the outside world in comparison to the fire formed inside the cave in order to show the human influence on the men in the cave (bk. 7, 516e-517d). The shadows they viewed in the cave were untrue because they were man-made images iewed through a man-made source of light. It reflects the way in which man blinds man through their false understandings and leads them to believe these understandings as truths.
For Plato, the sun holds a magnanimous image. As pointed out in book 6, light is considered “the noblest link” in the process of viewing bodies (bk. 6, 507d-508c). The sun, being the highest form of light, allows the eye to view the objects; without it, nothing could be seen. Not only does the sun allow objects to be seen properly, but it also sustains the objects themselves with its light (bk. 6, 509a-e). Plato compares the complex relationship of the sun, the eyes, and objects to the process of understanding the good.
He claims that the sun, … which supplies the objects of real knowledge with the truth that is in them, and which renders him who know them the faculty of knowing them, you must consider to be the essential form of good, and you must regard it as the origin of science and truth so far as the latter comes within the range of knowledge; and though knowledge and truth are both very beautiful things, you will be right in looking upon good as something distinct from them, and even more beautiful (bk. , 508c-509a).
In this quote, the sun parallels Plato’s idea of “the good,” which he distinguishes from knowledge and truth. According to Plato, “goodness” both sustains and constitutes knowledge and truth in the world. It allows for them to grow and prosper by projecting itself upon these principles and ideas. Specifically through the example of knowledge, Plato claims that the good gives knowledge itself both its ability to be known and a “real and essential existence” (bk. 6, 509a-e). However, the good cannot be confined to these definitions since it possesses a higher form of power (bk. 6, 508c-509a).
