The Thinker 119
cleared the ground. He has shown the enormous fl aws in the un-
derstanding of life that most men and women sustain. But he has
done little to replace error with Truth, doxa with enlightenment.
Socrates has demonstrated how deep the human need is for posi-
tive enlightenment, but he has not provided the teachings. And it is
this that Plato and all who have followed him have tried to do. But
Socrates begins it all. He shows us time and again— and dies to
prove it— that common understanding is not enough. The way that
most people live and think is inadequate, and something better must
be found. For a time agile doubt will have to do. But eventually the
Soul must pre sent to the world a way of life that contends with, and
can conceivably overthrow, the life of the Self.
Does Socrates ever leave Plato’s cave? In the cave parable— the
most famous in philosophy— there are represented three stages of
being. The fi rst is the life of the Self. It is the life that most men and
women live most of the time, and Plato renders it harshly. The ma-
jority of human beings sit on a bench, chained by the leg but also
by the neck. They cannot move from where they sit, and they cannot
look anywhere but straight ahead. They stare at a screen, and on that
screen they see images cast forward by a fi re burning behind them.
They do not know that they’re imprisoned. They think that this is
the natu ral state of human life. But it is only a matter of their educa-
tions: they have been accustomed since youth to taking illusions
as realities, and as life goes on they continue to do so, with ever-
growing conviction.
Virtually all human beings live in a prison, under confi nement;
what they think is freedom is bitter enclosure. But they have grown
used to this state, and they cannot conceive any other. They cannot
explain why they are here, or why they behave as they do; they take
their confi nement to be natu ral.
But suppose, Plato says, one of them is suddenly set free and
begins to make his way around the cave, exploring. Quickly he