hat what has been said about the State and the government is not a mere dream, and although difficult not impossible, but only possible in the way which has been supposed; that is to say,

Then this is a kind of knowledge which legislation may fitly prescribe

Then this is knowledge of the kind for which we are seeking, having a double use, military and philosophical; for the man of war must learn the art of number or he will not know how to array his troops, and the philosopher also, because he has to rise out of the sea of change and lay hold of true being, and therefore he must be an arithmetician.

Think a little and you will see that what has preceded will supply the answer; for if simple unity could be adequately perceived by the sight or by any other sense, then, as we were saying in the case of the finger, there would be nothing to attract towards being; but when there is some contradiction always present, and one is the reverse of one and involves the conception of plurality, then thought begins to be aroused within us, and the soul perplexed and wanting to arrive at a decision asks ‘What is absolute unity?’ This is the way in which the study of the one has a power of drawing and converting the mind to the contemplation of true being.

And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight.

And thus our State, which is also yours, will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good.

we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been educated,

here will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to have a care and providence of others; we shall explain to them that in other States, men of their class are not obliged to share in the toils of politics:

True, he said, I had forgotten.

they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labours and honours, whether they are worth having or not.

hey must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.

But what if there had been a circumcision of such natures in the days of their youth; and they had been severed from those sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking, which, like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth, and which drag them down and turn the vision of their souls upon the things that are below—if, I say, they had been released from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now.

the other so-called virtues

certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.

he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavouring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?

in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effo

would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?

he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?

grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world.

When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.

At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light,

how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?

ike the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

legs and necks chained so that they cannot move

Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den;

cultural needs and the increasing demands of an industrialized workplace for highly skilled workers, necessitated radical changes in the complexity of skills and knowledge “learned” in our increasingly nationalized (even internationalized)  education systems.

Every aspect of learning includes complex interactions with the physical and abstract universe, involving body and mind working together in harmony (at least some of the time). In order to receive a successful education––whether playing a sport, singing an aria, or writing an essay––one must be adept at learning.

meaning to lead out of.

Knowledge emerges only through invention and re-invention, through the restless, impatient continuing, hopeful inquiry human beings pursue in the world, with the world, and with each other.

in which the scope of action allowed to the students extends only as far as receiving, filing, and storing the deposits.

meekly

“containers,” into “receptacles” to be “filled

leads the students to memorize mechanically the narrated account