Plato‘s REPUBLIC, Book 6, Part 3

REPUBLIC, book 6 begins what may be considered the most famous and important passages in all of Western philosophy. Plato begins to systematically present his theory of the Forms in a series of notable analogies, beginning with the Sun and concluding chapter 6 with the Line.

The chapter begins by picking up the discussion that ended chapter 5 on the true philosophers, those who "know best," those who are able to see "the thing itself." It should be clear, Socrates says, that philosophers, defined as "those who are able to grasp what is always the same in all respects," should rule in our city. But, Adeimantus objects, real philosophers, not Socrates' ideal philosophers, are either wicked or useless. Socrates agrees, but explains that only the proper combination of nature and nurture can produce the true philosopher, and it is only in a society like the Kallipolis that the true philosophical nature can be properly nurtured into its greatest potential for good. Such true philosophers will be able to "see" the Good Itself, the Form of the Good, which is like the Sun, illuminating what is and nourishing all that is good. This analogy of the sun leads directly to the analogy of the line, which graphically displays the epistemological insights we began to unfold at the conclusion of chapter 5, and we are told to think of human knowledge as lying upon a continuum between ignorance and true understanding, of which only the philosopher is capable.

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