Quotation
Last reviewed:
“Education is not what some people declare it to be, namely putting knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes.”
Plato · Platonism · Ancient · c. 375 BCE
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that the power to learn is already in the soul, and education turns it toward what is more real instead of inserting sight into blind eyes. A competing reading sees a defence of a long elite training, with the cave's shadows standing for ordinary people's opinions. The sentence closes the allegory of the cave in Republic VII, just before the divided line's lessons are applied to a curriculum. It is about philosophical education, not only about schools.
Did Plato really say this?
The library’s label is Paraphrase or translation. Close translation from the end of the cave image. The surrounding argument says education turns the whole soul toward the light, rather than inserting information.
Where it comes from
Plato, Republic 518b–c
Approximate date: c. 375 BCE.
How to use it
A revision evening that is only a stack of mark schemes can leave a pupil able to recite and still facing the wrong way. Ask whether the hour turned anyone's attention or only filled a jar. The difference shows up in whether they can use the idea on a question they have not memorised.
A mindset reading
You are not an empty container waiting for content. You are someone who can look in a worse or a better direction, and turning is slower than downloading. The habit is to notice which way a lesson, a feed, or a conversation has your face pointed.
Understand the philosophy
Plato is answering a picture of teaching as pouring knowledge into a lack. The cave is the key image: prisoners take shadows for the things themselves. Education, paideia, is the turning of the whole soul, not a transfer of facts. The one who climbs finds the return painful, and is not believed.
- knowledge
- mind
- change
FAQ
What does it mean?
The mainstream reading is that the power to learn is already in the soul, and education turns it toward what is more real instead of inserting sight into blind eyes. A competing reading sees a defence of a long elite training, with the cave's shadows standing for ordinary people's opinions. The sentence closes the allegory of the cave in Republic VII, just before the divided line's lessons are applied to a curriculum. It is about philosophical education, not only about schools.
Did Plato really say this?
Paraphrase or translation. Close translation from the end of the cave image. The surrounding argument says education turns the whole soul toward the light, rather than inserting information.
Which work is it in?
Plato, Republic 518b–c Approximate date: c. 375 BCE.