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1 results

  • 5 - Return to the cave

  • Edited by Mark L. McPherran, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia
  • Book:
    Plato's 'Republic'
    Published online:
    04 February 2011
    Print publication:
    25 November 2010, pp 83-102

  • Summary

    The problem addressed in this chapter, sometimes called "the happy philosopher problem", is that one of the main arguments of the Republic was supposed to show that justice is preferable to injustice, for the agent. Based on the Republic, the chapter highlights doing what is just is not preferable to those who must return to the cave, who would be happier shirking their duties and remaining uninvolved with the dirty business of politics. In the case of the returners, Plato provides a counter example to his claim that justice is invariably preferable to injustice. When Plato discusses injustice as psychic disharmony, the account requires that each part of the soul must "do its own". The chapter concludes that how refusing to return to the cave would be psychically unbalancing, and also how the incomplete education of the returners could be used to explain their epistemic defects.