Plato is the most creative and influential person among the disciples of the Socrates. He wrote dialogues in which he frequently used the figures of Socrates to expose personal philosophy. Plato summarized his views in the Republican article by illustrating an image of ignorant humanity, trapped up deep and not even aware of its own limited perspective. By this, he meant that rare people manage to escape the limitations of the cave and, through a long, difficult intellectual journey, notices a higher realm, a true reality, with a final and almost mystical awareness of goodness as the beginning of everything that exists. He further illustrates that such kind of a person is the best as he or she is well equipped and therefore can govern the society because he or she has enough knowledge of what is ultimately most important in life but not just knowledge of techniques. However, a person with such knowledge and skills will most of the time be misunderstood by those other ordinary people who are still in the cave and have not shared in the intellectual insight (Plato &Jowett, 1941). This means that prisoners who are in the cave are not able to see reality, but only a shadowy representation of it.
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The importance of the allegory of the cave lies in Plato's belief that in the world, there are some things which are only invisible truths found under the apparent surface of things that can only be grasped or understood by the intellectuals. Used to world of illusion in the cave, the prisoners have the tendency to refuse to be enlightened just like students are fond of resisting education.However, according to Plato's story, those who accept and achieve enlightenment need to be the leaders and rulers of all the rest. In addition, he illustrates that education is not just an approach of forcing knowledge into empty minds, but it is a process of making people recognize that which they are already aware of (Plato &Jowett, 1941).
Most of Plato's philosophical assumptions are represented in the Allegory of the cave where he beliefs that the world we see or the world that is revealed through our senses is basically not the real world but only a fake copy of it. He has a belief that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually. Plato also has an idea that it's difficult for a teacher to transfer education or knowledge to his or her students. But, he demonstrates that education involves directing the minds of the learners towards the real and important things by permitting them to apprehend it for themselves (Watt, 1997). Therefore, Plato was able to give clear explanations of the illusions, reality, and the truth. For instance, he used the cave to represent the world where very few people are able to make it or succeed from the limitations of the cave, which is the world may be because of limited resources.This is true to some extent in the real world because very few people manage to attain high and better lives through a long, difficult intellectual journey. These types of people include lawyers, teachers, or even doctors who have the knowledge on how to cure people by the use of sophisticated methods. Plato explains that their knowledge is nothing more than a shadow.
According to plato, education is nothing but the practice of forcing thoughts into children's minds. This is because every person was created with the ability to think and incase an individual is unable to understand, then he or she is being held by his or her own imaginations. He explains that when a person's soul is held by imaginations of pleasure or suffering it becomes difficult for it to contemplate through its own intelligence the unchanging patterns of things.
This article was used to explain Plato's story because it had ideas that are valid, true, and real. The main points that stood out from the article includes the idea on the real world, education and people's imaginations