Plato's Curious Republic
c375 BC
-375 -375
23.41E38.00N
MISC

ATHENS, GREECE
	Plato left Athens in a hurry. His beloved teacher, Socrates, had been condemned to death, and as one of his supporters, his life was also in danger.
	He lived abroad for 12 years, then returned to Athens when he was 40 years old to found an academy, the world's first recorded university. Under Plato's leadership it became the ancient world's authority on law and mathematics.
	Plato's produced 30 works, but perhaps his greatest is "The Republic," written about 375 BC, which sketches what he regards as an ideal society, though it is a very authoritarian society that we would not consider to be a republic.
	This strictly-regulated society would be based on education and ruled by what he called "philosopher rulers."
	Education would be universal until age 20. Then, those who were not qualified to continue their education would be workers. After 10 years, there would be a second test and those not qualified to continue their education would be soldiers and police. The remainder, who would study philosophy, would rule.
	One of the most famous passages in "The Republic" is Plato's parable of the cave, which illustrates his idea that everyday reality is a shadowy copy of perfect reality.
 	In the illustration he compares humanity to a group of prisoners who have been chained for all their lives inside a cave facing a blank wall. Outside the cave is a bonfire and between the bonfire and the mouth of the cave are people carrying various objects. The shadows of those objects fall on the wall of the cave, and with rare exceptions, the prisoners think the shadows are all there is of reality.