Hi. Hi, I'm Peter Adamson, and you're listening to the History of Philosophy podcast, brought to you with the support of King's College London and deliver whom Hume Trust, online at

W.W. History of Philosophy. Net. Today's episode, Ain't No Sunshine,

the cave allegory of Plato's Republic.

When we last left our hero Socrates midway through the Republic, he had finished describing

the city of perfect justice.

In this city there would be three classes of citizens, the true guardians, the auxiliary soldiers, and the craftsmen.

The guardians would rule, just as reason rules in the best soul.

The other parties did the discussion, Klaucon and Adiamantus, have accepted not only this, but some astonishing proposals, such as the communal sharing of property and children amongst the guardians, and the acceptance that women too can be guardians.

Now Socrates promises a final yet more astonishing claim.

He wants to show how the ideal city could at least in principle actually come into existence.

It could only happen says Socrates if the rulers of the city were philosophers.

It's fitting that this most notorious idea in the Republic is illustrated with some of the most famous passages in the platonic dialogues.

These include what must be the most popular image in all of ancient philosophy, the allegory of the cave.

Also found in this stretch of the republic are two more well-known images, the divided line

and the comparison between the sun and the form of the good. Clearly this part of the Republic would

feature heavily in any compilation of Plato's greatest hits. And it's no

surprise that he's reaching for his best material here, since the view Socrates

is presenting is both crucial and, let's face it, hard to swallow.

Socrates himself draws attention to this, saying that he expects to be drowned by a wave of objections or plain old ridicule when he says that philosophers should rule.

After all, philosophers, then as now, were hardly seen as potential politicians.

Admittedly, we've seen philosophers

philosophers occasionally coming into contact with political power, for instance

...