122 Ancient Ideals
But the more time we spend trying to focus on the light of the sun,
the richer life grows. We begin to achieve release from slavery to our
own wants. We stop being so ambitious and vain. We cease re-
fl ecting on what will make us happy— what will give us plea sure. In
the light we become free from the dark and tedious Self that abides
underground. This Self, a little like Freud’s unconscious, seeks only
its own satisfactions. We now look for more out of existence.
In the light, the thinker begins to change. Socrates lived a vir-
tuous life, yes. But as his mind’s light expands, Plato asks what it
would mean for everyone to live a virtuous life. He begins to won der
how he can give humanity a blueprint for creating a just world. For
he understands that Socrates’ kind of good life is not for everybody;
in fact, it may only be for the few, the phi los o phers. What about the
rest of mankind— all those who are left down in the cave, wasting
their lives like prisoners? What kind of life might they at their
best have? To philosophize in the highest form is to think on
behalf of everyone and then to off er them—as a gift, not as a form
of coercion— a vision of how life can be truer to humanity’s best
promise. The fruit of Plato’s encounter with a life outside the
cave is The Republic.
It is impossible to encompass the achievement of this, Plato’s
greatest work. Since at least Aristotle, thinkers have been pondering
it; virtually all of what qualifi es as philosophy has been a reaction
to The Republic, and yet its resources are far from exhausted.
Here there is everything to delight and enhance the mind and to
strengthen character.
The book is almost spectacularly bold, yet it revolves around a
simple premise. The best kind of human life is the most serene.
Calm, balance, detachment, humanity: these are the states that Plato
most trea sures. He clearly believes that as we read him and look back
on our past experience, we will see that he is right. As turbulent as
our lives may have been, we will still have experienced moments of