An Analysis of Gyges and the Cave. Part II.

Once this has been established, Socrates describes something truly amazing. He says to Glaucon,

"Consider, then, what would be the manner of the release and healing from these bonds and this folly if in the course of nature something of this sort should happen to them. When one was freed from his fetters and compelled to stand up suddenly and turn his head around and walk and to lift up his eyes to the light, and in doing all this felt pain and, because of the dazzle and glitter of the light, was unable to discern the objects whose shadows he formerly saw, what do you suppose would be his answer if someone told him that what he had seen before was all a cheat and an illusion, but that now, being nearer to reality and turned toward more real things, he saw more truly?"

Here, Socrates tells us of the beginnings of the first philosopher-king, and soon later goes on to describe how this man would have to be dragged out of this cave into the sunlight, and even there, that the man would first have to look at the shadows of the true things, and then into the reflections they made in pools of water, then at the things themselves, and finally, after much habituation, he would be able to look at the Good itself. Once this happens, our philosopher-king will have to be made to go back down into the darkness of the cave in the name of justice so that he may be able to rule over the men who remain ignorant, who would, in return, laugh at his wisdom, and eventually—if he were to attempt to bring another out of the cave—they would kill him , because though the cave is dark, it is familiar and comfortable.

One cannot help but notice how improbable this entire situation is made to be by Socrates. First, the man is inexplicably freed from his bonds and is somehow “compelled” toward the light—necessarily, it seems, by some outside force. But where is this force that frees the man, compels him to look at the light, then drags him out of the cave into the sunlight and eventually makes him to look into the sun? Then, somehow, the philosopher-king would have to be forced back down into the cave in the name of justice, into the presence of ignorant men, who, in all probability, would kill him, and at the very least, would label him a fool and ignore him. But, if somehow, against all odds, the philosopher-king is able to go back down into the cave and successfully rule the people, the city will be harmonious—the city will be just.