Plato's Allegory Of The Ideal City

Justice is avidly sought of for daily, however how one knows if they are achieving justice or not. In Plato's Republic he attempts to define justice and draws out a plan on how society would be able to achieve true justice. Plato’s strategy in The Republic is to first explicate the primary notion of societal, or political, justice, and then to derive an analogous concept of individual justice. Through discussion justice is soon defined as harmony within a structured political body. As a whole, Plato sees a just society when relations between the different classes of people are right. This, in turn, created the allegory of the Ideal City. Within this allegory Plato proceeds to create different classes of people -the producers, the guardians,
Within the allegory education moves the philosopher through stages of struggle but ultimately allows him to attain the Form of the Good. The allegory goes as follows; A group of people have lived in a cave since birth, they have never seen the light of day and are hindered in their mobility as they are bound to chains. There is a fire behind them and behind that is a partial wall with statues manipulated by the people outside the cave. Due to the fire, the statues cast shadows across the wall that the prisoners are facing. The prisoners watch the stories that these shadows play out, and because these shadows are all they ever get to see, they believe them to be reality. Additionally, as they speak they're voices are echoed causing them, again, to believe this is reality. These prisoners represent the lowest stage on the divided line, this being imagination. As the allegory proceeds a prisoner is freed from his bonds, and is forced to see the fire and the statues themselves, this caused him pain and confusion as his eyes were never exposed to light, however the prisoner soon realized that this was reality – not the shadows he once perceived to be real. Eventually, he understand that together the light and the statues cast shadows on the wall and accepts these items as the most real things. This represents belief. Although he is not yet aware of the world outside the cave, when the prisoner is taken out of the cave he is dazed and slowly embraces the beauty around him and knows that this is truly reality, and is even more real than the statues. This stage is cognitive stage, or the stage of thought, and has seen the most real things- the Forms. As his eyes adjusts to the light, he notices the Sun and realizes the sun is the cause of everything. The sun represent the Form of the Good and represents the prisoner reaching the stage of