This part of Plato’s philosophy is perhaps the most well-known of his many contributions to ancient Greek thought. Not only did it become the foundation for his political theory, but it even became a kind of paradigm for the Western view of reality as a whole. Here, in Book Seven of his Republic, Plato offers an allegorical account of how he sees the nature of reality and our knowledge thereof. It is possible that no other image of such matters has had more influence in Western thought than that of “The Cave.”
Plato begins by drawing a picture of a person in chains at the bottom of a cave with his vision, or understanding, limited to the shadows he sees on the cave wall cast by various objects passing before the light from a fire that exists outside of the cave. The prisoner and his colleagues pass the time trying to guess what the objects are passing in front of the light of the fire. Obviously, this “game” is fruitless as regards coming to know what the objects actually are, even though in this very primitive setting the guesses pass for knowledge.
Now, Plato surmises, if the prisoners were to be freed from their chains and able to find their way up and out of the cave, they would be on their way to acquiring actual knowledge of the reality outside of the cave. He likens their struggle up and out of the cave to that of a child initially finding its way around in the world. Our pilgrim is at first blinded by the light of the fire and all that it reveals about reality. At first, he discerns various objects being carried bye in front of the fire that are actually the items casting the shadows on the wall of the cave. He now understands that these items, and not the shadows, are the real objects of knowledge. However, he also soon discovers that these objects are themselves only physical copies of still other, actually more real objects in the world.
Plato suggests that even such objects are themselves only copies of the various “Ideas” or “Forms” that make up the ultimately real world lying behind the world of physical objects and making them possible. This world of ideas is what is “really real”, while all the rest is mere shadows and copies. It is here that the ideas such as Goodness, Justice, and Beauty reside, in the world of Ideas, not in the physical world. Plato argues that once a person actually encounters this real world of Ideas and Forms he or she will never wish to return to the world of physical reality, never ground their values in the anything other than pure ideas and truth.
Of course, Plato’s real purpose in developing this allegory was to provide a solid background against which to show how and why an effective and honorable political government must ultimately be based on solid ideas and those who know how to follow them. He calls such leaders “Philosopher Kings” and claims that those alone who have struggled their way up out of the cave of ignorance into the world of Ideas would be fit to rule a government effectively and honorably. Plato argues that they should not have any money or possessions of their own. He goes on to develop strict ideas about how these rulers would be educated. He argues that they should not have any personal life of their own so that they can be devoted entirely to the welfare of the State.
Plato actually made two trips to Syracuse in Italy trying to convince his friend the ruler there to institute his ideas but to no avail. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” has greatly influenced Western thought, both in its metaphysical and political development. At the same time, it has helped shape our ideas about education and knowledge. Moreover, the image of reality as a cave and education as the way out of ignorance has played an important role in guiding many thinkers’ ideas about how best to go about gaining knowledge. Indeed, Christian thinkers such as Augustine took Plato’s image as a blueprint for understanding the way humans should come to a knowledge of God through developing an understanding how God has structured the cosmos and how we can gain knowledge thereof.

This may be a funny way to put it, but there was a great deal of racism in New Testament times. The most obvious is the racism of Jewish people against the people of Samaria. The Samaritans had originally been part of the Jewish nation, but when most of the latter were transported to Babylon a great many Jewish people were left behind in what became Samaria, located halfway between Jerusalem and Galilee. These folks mixed in with other people who came to Palestine during the Babylonian captivity, forming the mixed race called Samaritans.
As is clear from several New Testament passages, the Samaritans were hated by the Jews who had later returned from Babylon to restart their nation. The story of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman is a concrete example. When Jewish people traveled back and forth, they actually sought to pass around Samaria. In John 4 Jesus told the story of the “Good Samaritan” to illustrate the depth of the Jews’ hatred of Samaritans. The Samaritan woman actually asked Jesus: “How is it that you a Jew would speak to me a Samaritan?” (John 4)
After Jesus’ death Paul, a devout Jew, became the leader of the new Christian group of converted Jews. In both his missionary travels and letters Paul taught the full acceptance of Gentile converts into the Christian community, which at the beginning was exclusively Jewish. This caused a great deal of tension within the Church. For example, in Acts 10 Peter embraces Cornelius a gentile Roman soldier into the Christian fold, thus stirring up a good deal of confusion.
Indeed, a small but strong unofficial group of early Christians, sometimes called “Judaizers”, followed Paul around on his early missionary journeys insisting that Gentile converts must be circumcised. Paul devoted a great deal of energy and writing seeking to counteract this movement. For instance, the entire 3rd chapter of his letter to the Galatians is devoted to educate them on this point. He went on to proclaim that “In Christ there is no Jew or Greek.” In addition, Paul consistently applied this Christian inclusivism to his view of women as well.
Perhaps the most telling dynamic on this subject is between Paul and Peter. Even after he had accepted Cornelius as a Christian believer, when the Apostles were meeting in Antioch, Peter seems to have waffled about whether to break bread with his Gentile Christian brothers. Before they arrived, he broke bread with the Jewish Christian brothers, but after some of his Christian Jewish brothers arrived, he seems to have switched tables and separated himself from the mixed group. Indeed, in his letter to the Galatians, Paul references Peter’s ambivalent behavior and states that he called him out for being inconsistent on this issue. (Galatians 2:14)
A similar ambivalence on the part of certain believers is revealed in Paul’s letters with regard to the proper Christian attitude toward women and slaves. In New Testament times both women and slaves were held to be seriously unequal to their male and freeperson counterparts. In his letter to Philemon Paul seeks to encourage his friend to deal with his runaway slave as a “brother in Christ.” Also, somewhat more surprisingly, Paul’s letters make it abundantly clear that he saw his women converts as equal partners in the ministry of spreading the Gospel. In many of his letters Paul refers to the women working with him as his “co-workers in Christ” and as officers in the churches he had started. (Romans 16)
In the New Testament then, neither gender, nor social status, nor race can “separate us from the love of God”. All believers are together as one in Christ. So, racism can be seen to have been as important an issue in the New Testament times as it is today.