Abstract
The paper puts forward a new interpretation of Plato’s image of the Cave: (1) its connection with the Analogy of the Sun and the Analogy of the Divided Line, (2) the meaning and function of the idea of the Good and (3) the meaning of paideia in Plato’s Republic. The anthropological core idea of Plato’s philosophy and the cause of the apaideusia (R.514a), i.e., lack of education, is identified as a separation from the origin. (1) First, the orthodox interpretation that the connecting relation between the Allegory of the Cave, the Analogy of the Sun and the Analogy of the Divided Line is a strict parallelism is criticised. It is shown that the connecting relation is in fact a resemblance, which implies sameness and difference of the three analogies. (2) Second, the idea of the Good is the necessary condition for the possibility of being, truth and thought. It is the highest principle and the ultimate foundation of Plato’s ethics. (3) Plato’s paideia (education) is holistic, that is, it involves the spirited and appetitive part of the soul.
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