1. Let reason be your guide.
2. Use reason to look past what ‘seems’ to find what ‘is’.
3. Do not get distracted by convention.
4. Consider retreat.
5. Break your chains; think for yourself.
6. Understand that knowledge is not easy; persevere.
One. Let reason be your guide. Plato says that we all have competing parts of ourselves and these parts drag us in different directions. Some of these directions are good and useful, others are not. We need to be able to discern the difference and manage these natural parts of ourselves as much as we can. For example, part of us wants to satisfy our bodily appetites: we want to be comfortable, well fed, we don’t want pain, and we want to experience as much pleasure as possible as often as possible. Another part of us wants to achieve other goals, knowing that this requires some discipline and the denial of bodily appetites. Think of the person dieting before a wedding or a holiday: they deny themselves their bodily appetites for the sake of looking good on the beach or in the photos. Their desire for reputation trumps their desire for cake. They are really no different from the bodybuilder preparing for a competition, or any other athlete who puts themselves through severe training in pursuit of victory. The athlete has a lust for glory; the glutton has a lust for cake. Both are perfectly natural desires but they do stand in opposition to one another. What we have to decide is which of these natural parts of ourselves we choose to direct our lives. I don’t mean that you have to choose between being an athlete or a glutton – this is just an example – but you must recognise your desires for what they are and make a judgement about whether you are happy to be led by them, and to what extent. If you don’t do this then you will be led around unthinkingly, blind, like a ship lost at sea. Catastrophe and frustration are very likely. Plato says you will never see an end to your troubles until you put your reasoning faculty in charge.
If you decide to listen to your reason and put it in charge, it will enable you to weigh up your competing desires and decide on the best course of action. It’s likely that you will have to strike a balance and give each competing desire its proper place. Allow your bodily appetites to be satisfied to the extent that it doesn’t damage you or prevent you from achieving your spiritual goals. Allow your spiritual goals to direct your life, but don’t let them dominate to such an extent that they make you ill. Remember the analogy between a human being and a nation state. A nation of warriors will be constantly at war with itself and others; it will quickly die. A nation of farmers and artisans will be comfortable and well fed, until the invading army arrives… Unless you allow both in your society, you will end up trouble. But allowing both in your society requires some management. Someone needs to keep the warriors in check and tell them what to do; someone needs to stop the merchants taking over. This is a difficult task and it requires some know-how. It’s only your reason, your governing faculty, that knows what it’s doing because it’s only your reason that can think things through. Your reason tries to find the right answer; it tries to find the truth. If you let that reason be your guide, put it in charge, and let it manage the competing parts of yourself, you will never go far wrong.
Often we are led about by our desires, acting without thinking, doing before we understand what ought to be done. Examples of this natural tendency leading us astray are easy to come by. Picture the man who has an extra-marital affair. He gets led along by his desire, acts on it, and only then realises what follows from it. If he’d thought it through, would he have acted on that desire? Would he have let his desire dictate his behaviour? Possibly, but likely not. It’s unreasonable to expect human beings to be without desire, but it would be more unreasonable to willingly let those desires rule our lives and dictate our behaviour. We need to step in and govern ourselves, thinking and deciding which desires we let direct our actions. What is it that performs this governing act, other than our powers of reason? We need to be aware of our desires, our competing desires, and we need to think them through.
The great reward of reason is that it works. You tell a man, tempted by an affair, to reflect on his wife and children. If there is any desire for his married life, he will see it, and he will be forced to weigh that desire against his adulterous lust. It offers a counterweight. His bodily appetites are opposed by his spiritual desires for loyalty, integrity, a true and lifelong love. Or simply the desire for a good reputation. Now he has stepped back from being led by the nose and he can think it through, weigh it up. Perhaps he makes the same decision, but at least that will be a decision, his decision, and not just blundering into something.
Like Socrates, and like most philosophers, Plato believes that when we think it through sufficiently we will all come to the same answers. David Hume says the same in the 18th century. ‘In all ingenuous natures, the antipathy to treachery and roguery is too strong to be counterbalanced by any views of profit or pecuniary advantage. Inward peace of mind, consciousness of integrity, a satisfactory review of our own conduct; these are circumstances very requisite to happiness, and will be cherished and cultivated by every honest man, who feels the importance of them.’ Who in their right mind would trade these things of such great value, hard-earned over a lifetime, for the trifles of a moment’s idle pleasure?
Your reason sees the truth whilst your body and spirit can lead you astray. Note I do not say your mind, because your mind can malfunction and go against you. I say reason, because that is the word we use for that part of your mind that desires the truth and is averse to falsity and contradiction. If you follow this, it will find what is true and consistent, and that can never lead you astray. There are many parts of our mind and not all of them are useful. But the reasoning faculty, especially when trained and honed, is a powerful tool for good. Cultivate it, trust it, and let it guide you.
Two. Use reason to look past what ‘seems’ to find what ‘is’. The first result of putting your reason in charge is that you can start to see your desires for what they are. Reflect on your desires and aversions. Do not be led by them, but try to understand them: what are they, and what are they for? The family man wants to have an affair; why? For physical pleasure, or because he wants to feel wanted? You want more money; why? Because it can buy you pleasant things like food and wine and holidays, or because it will impress your in-laws and increase your standing in society? Do you want the promotion because it leads to more money (see above) and a more comfortable living situation, or because it is a sign that you are better than your colleagues? In simple terms, are these desires aiming to satisfy your bodily or spiritual wants?
Seeing your desires for what they are allows you to properly direct your time and efforts and avoid contradictions. If you want reputation then cultivate your reputation; if you want comfort then find more time to take things easy. It’s simple enough to do this once you’ve seen it clearly, but how often do you find people blundering into living in contradiction with themselves? They work themselves into the ground in pursuit of a ‘more comfortable standard of living’. They slack off or are resistant in the workplace and then are disappointed to discover that the promotion isn’t coming and they aren’t as well-thought-of as they’d thought. The family man has an affair because he wants to be liked and feel wanted, and the result of his choices is to be despised by the people whose good opinion he values the most. These are all contradictions that reason can easily see. If you want to be an athlete, expect an uncomfortable time. If you want a comfortable time, don’t expect anything more than what living comfortably can achieve. Until you put your reason in charge and see things for what they are you will always be troubled and disappointed.
If you put your reason in charge and see your desires for what they are, you can spend your time satisfying them, and then you will be living in a way that is simply doing what you want, without contradiction. The athlete wants victory; they see this clearly; they know this needs training and discipline; so they want to train and live with discipline. There are no contradictions here. Another person wants a comfortable life; they see this clearly; they know that this is unlikely to lead to any great achievements, that no one will give them a pat on the back for living a comfortable life, and they are ok with this lack of reputation because all they want is a comfortable life; so they live as comfortably as they can. There are no contradictions here. In Plato’s perfect society, let the artisan be the artisan, let the warrior be the warrior, and let the philosopher be the philosopher. Let each be what they are best suited to be. They live in harmony with themselves, and because of that they can live in harmony with each other. Use your reason to find out what you are, then be it, and you will live in harmony with yourself.
Plato’s perfect society is just an analogy for your soul, remember. What it’s meant to show you is that the goal is to live in harmony with yourself, and the only way to do this is to put reason in charge. When you put your inner philosopher in charge and try to find the truth, see what ‘is’ behind what ‘seems’, then you can come to understand yourself as you are, and also manage the competing parts of yourself.
Often we are led about by our desires, but just as often are we led about by our mistaken impressions of what seems to be desirable, not realising them for what they are. A fancy new car seems like a desirable thing, at least for many people, but is it actually valuable? Consider the cost of the fancy new car over the cost of being content with what you have. We have to talk about this in financial terms, because how else could we make sense of it nowadays, but consider what else that money could be put towards. Education for your children, or for yourself for that matter? Healthy food or preventative medical care? Buying time off work to spend more time with friends or family, or just having more time for yourself? How much you could feed your soul! But you’d trade all that for something that is functionally no different from what you have but is shiny? You have been taken in by a shadow. The marketeers have cast their shadows on the wall and you’ve taken those shadows for a reality. What they offer is not real. To realise this, to break your chains, you need to think it through and understand what really matters to you. Is it really that important to you to be seen in the fanciest car? Can you be proud of that aim? And if not, then why do you chase it?
We find the same susceptibility to chasing shadows when we look inwards, into our own characters. How many of our fears are for things that seem fearful when we know they aren’t? How many of our desires are for things that we know are not as rewarding as they seem? How many times have you lived in dread of a moment that, when it comes, turns out to be not so bad? How many times have you worked towards something, thinking it to be important, achieved the thing, and only left feeling an empty sense of anti-climax? It turned out this goal wasn’t as rewarding as it seemed, but still we keep chasing these empty goals. But how often have you been left feeling empty by things that really matter to you? Your sincere loves and deep relationships, those times when you pursue things that are true to yourself. These are the things that we find actually rewarding; we never doubt their worth or find them lacking.
Three. Do not get distracted by convention. People will cast their shadows on the wall. Some of these people are powerful enough to cast a large and distracting shadow that is hard to avoid. But it remains a shadow and not something that is really real. Social media is the clearest example of this in the modern world. It is a world of images of images; you have to work very hard to see the reality beneath the performances and the algorithms. Can anything real survive that process? In what form? An image? And you would take that image for reality? And you would let that image distract you from yourself? You are a cave-dwelling fool if you choose this when you have an alternative. You can turn it off, of course. Or you can accept it for what it is and see it for what it is: just a show of shadows that signifies nothing.
Four. Consider retreat. Understand that developing your reasoning faculty and your appreciation of the truth might require a retreat from the world. This needn’t be a total retreat or forever, but it is hard to focus when you are surrounded by distractions. When you are immersed in the satisfaction of your bodily appetites, say when you are eating delicious food or caught up in pursuing sexual desire, you care little for the truth. You just want, and want more. Likewise when you are wrapped up in the desires of the spirit, such as when you are competing at something and want to win. You get lost in yourself. In argument, or when discussions become heated, more often than not people get caught up with trying to win the argument and will say anything to do so, however silly or untrue to whatever they believe. The solution here, at least for Plato, is to withdraw and see the situation for what it is. Recognise that you are being led by your desire for victory and glory, not for the truth. Or in cases of gluttony, recognise that your bodily appetites are in control. Withdraw from them back into a space where the reasoning faculty can reassert some governance. Ordinarily, the reasoning faculty finds a happy home in peaceful contemplation. That space is quiet, calm, often quite private if not solitary. It is rarely found in the hustle and bustle of the marketplace. Plato is happy to retreat to that quiet space of contemplation that nurtures the life of the mind.
Five. Break your chains; think for yourself. Understand that most of what you see in the world are nothing but representations, shadows on the wall. Often these shadows are cast by the powerful forces in human society, like money and religion and nationalism, and those idols are easy to question but difficult to topple. But just as often the shadows are cast inadvertently by ourselves for lack of knowing any better. Each of us looks to represent ourselves in the best light; we get caught up in our empty desire for seeming good (rather than being good) and we lose ourselves in that desire. We want to be well-thought of, so we represent ourselves in a certain way. Other people see only that representation. What they are seeing is a shadow, a facade; but they can hardly be blamed for seeing only what you allow them to see. This representation of ourselves takes a different form in different contexts: at work we try to be professional and respectable, socially we try to be fun and likeable. We try to play the game of shadows. The picture can get confusing. We lose ourselves in that confusion.
The first step is to break your chains. Stop looking at the shadows on the wall. See them for what they are: shadows only, not really real. You must realise that your employer’s or mother’s or father’s or partner’s or society’s opinion of you does not determine your worth as a human being, surely? They do not determine who you really are. Or is that all you are? Are you content for that to be all you are? If you crafted yourself to be exactly what they wanted, would you be proud of the result? Would you be proud to fit so perfectly with someone else’s opinion, when it is not your own?
We are born free but live forever in the chains of other people’s opinions. If you would be free again then I suggest you do what you can to break yourself free of those chains. Think for yourself.
We are chained by other people’s opinions, but also by our own opinions about what is of value. Plato inherits the tone of Socrates’ thought here (along with pretty much all of post-Socratic philosophy). Material wealth counts for nothing in contrast to spiritual wealth. It’s easy to show by example. Run a quick catalogue of things that are of most value to you. What do human beings value most? The resulting list varies, of course, but as a rule we gravitate towards the familiar ground of family, community, relationships, health, happiness, etc., etc. Money and shiny things are rarely ever top of that list. But what is it we spend so much of our time trying to get more of? We are taken in by the shadows cast by people trying to sell us things and we mistake that shadow for a reality.
Again, just as with our representations of ourselves to others, we are often as guilty. Many of us work in industries that ultimately reduce to selling someone something. We buy into the game whenever we try to sell our product, and in buying into it we perpetuate it. To speak in terms of an example from my own experience: that a philosophy degree can be sold to a student partly on the basis of a promise of increased lifetime’s earnings potential. This ought to scream contradiction, but in the moment of selling it barely whispers. Philosophers have not only been taken in by the game of shadows, they have taken to selling it. We, of all people, ought to know better.
Six. Understand that knowledge is not easy; persevere. Thinking for yourself and trusting to your reason is not easy. As Plato says, you will suffer sharp pains. You have to go against most of what you know and feel to be true. Everyone in your schooling gives you the impression that good grades really matter. It takes a strong will to point out that good grades matter nothing compared to good knowledge and understanding. That is a trivial example. Consider the tougher example of coming to realise that you live as a shadow of yourself; you live only as a facade that you have built for the purposes of casting a shadow on the wall. Everything that you have is represented in that facade, but you need to tear it down in order to see the truth. That is a very unpleasant process, as anyone who has experienced it can attest. But it is necessary to gain greater knowledge of yourself.
The same is true of your understanding of the world. You need to throw out so much nonsense in order to find what really matters, what is really true, buried beneath the layers of representation. A lot is lost along the way and that loss is painful. You need to trust that it will be worth it in the end. Plato depicts this as climbing out of a cave. It is a steep and rugged ascent, in the dark, and whilst you are clambering you can only see the promise of a light at the end of the tunnel. You are not there yet, but you are on your way, although the way is hard. You need to persevere.
Thinking for yourself is not easy. Neither is learning how to think well. Philosophy is difficult. Echoing that cliché about quantum theory: If you don’t think it’s difficult, it’s likely you haven’t understood it properly. It’s meant to be difficult. At least that’s what Plato thinks. He would go so far as to say that it’s too difficult for some people, and they shouldn’t bother trying but should simply know their place and be content with it. I wouldn’t go that far. I think philosophy is within the reach of everyone, but I would agree that it is not within the easy reach of everyone. It is meant to be difficult. It takes effort. Understanding that it’s meant to be difficult can give you some comfort and reassurance, as you struggle out of the cave, that you are on the right track.
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