Book 7 of The Republic by Plato talks about the extension of art in education relation to the essence of the truth that a guardian is to understand. In order to explain the need of intellect, Socrates gives the horrifying example of people chained in a den and surrounded with fire where they can only see the shadows. They cannot move their head and consider those shadows as the realities which, truthfully, are the shadows of images of themselves and others. Socrates compares this situation as living in the darkness where truth is not what we perceive but what we see as what we see is what we perceive. Now, if a person is taken out from this den i.e., taken out from the darkness to the light, then he will be dazzled by the brightness and won’t be able to see anything clearly and will think that he is still in the darkness. This sudden freedom is the cause of severe pain in the muscles as well in the mind but the continuous exposure will make him realize the difference in the darkness and the brightness. Socrates considers the medium which takes a man from darkness to brightness is education as the power and capacity of learning rests in the soul already and to rule a state, it must be completed. One thing that many rulers won’t agree with is that Socrates insists on bringing down the educated rulers to the lower level of darkness again so that they can be able to administer and bind the state successfully. I don’t understand why Socrates is so cruel. Bringing down the ministers at the level which either they have never seen or they have risen from it will make the ruler go berserk and lawlessness will prevail as the ruler is, after all, a human and his psychological states will fluctuate regularly making him a person left with personality disorders. Also, Socrates advocates the avoidance of power struggle by being reluctant to govern. How? If the ruler becomes a saint then how would people be able to decide what is to be done in a particular situation as the ruler is sleeping; by selecting only Virtue and wisdom instead of gold and silver? I think it should be virtue and wisdom along with gold and silver because you need to remain in the power and then only you can rule.
Socrates talks about the arts in education and various forms of it like arithmetic, geometry and dialectic. He gives the example of 3 fingers lined up one after another. If somebody asks what are they then everybody would answer that they are fingers which doesn't need intelligence to figure out but when asked about the comparative goodness or importance or other properties like length or width, then the argument invites intelligence and for this, dialectic is required to make opinions. Investigations and making opinions is important for a guardian to deduce and infer in every situation. Geometry is considered important from the point of view of military as well as philosophical purposes as the imagination of geometrician is better than those who haven’t studied it. Socrates doesn't consider astronomy as a good field of study for a guardian as this field lacks good teachers.
He also says that argument is good for the sake of own improvement instead of making others happy as there are two kind of people one must avoid, the first one of who always follow you and the second one are those who ignore you. I will take it. Blind followers are easy to find. One most important thing to be discussed , and that we also discussed in earlier books, is the impact of truth on the ruler when he find that he actually doesn't know his parents as he is the result of the system where all children are mixed and then the best are separated from the weak ones. This discovery of truth has potential to devastate the ruler’s system of thinking and he might fall in the hand of flatterers evidently which is harmful for the state. This is the litmus test for a ruler to show his maturity and eligibility to govern the state as he must take the administration as not performing a heroic deed but a matter of duty. I think it is easy for a philosopher to say this but it’s really very hard to cope with such a situation when you are about to rule the state. The state of mind is not very healthy when you know that you actually respect the ‘adopted’ parents instead of the real ones.
