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Republic 515c–516e: Turning Around Hurts, and the Prisoner Wants the Shadows Back

The text​

One prisoner is freed. In Jowett's words, "when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains." Shown the objects, he believes the shadows he knew were more real. Made to look at the fire itself, Socrates asks, "will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away" back toward the things he could see before?

Then: "suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he's forced into the presence of the sun himself." Only slowly do his eyes adjust, until he can see real things and finally the sun (Republic VII, trans. Jowett, MIT).

What Plato is saying​

  • The truth hurts first. The first look at the record does not feel like freedom. It feels like pain.
  • The prisoner wants to turn back. Plato expected people to reject the light and return to the familiar shadows.
  • He has to be dragged, "reluctantly." Nobody climbs out on the first try.

The Iran-war version​

A parent's first look at the record is painful. It means accepting that the war was begun on a case the government's own intelligence did not support; that the State Department's lawyer says it was entered "at the request of" Israel; that a law signed in December 2025 builds the draft list automatically. The natural reaction is to turn back to "there's no draft," "it's just strikes," "it'll be over soon."

That reaction has its own page: Back to the Wall: Rejecting the Checklist. Plato's advice is patience with yourself and persistence: take one document at a time. See A Parent's Checklist.

Education is turning, not filling​

Plato adds that education is not what some say, that "they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes" (518b–c). It is turning the whole person toward what is real. No page on this site can do that for a reader. It can only point at the documents.

Sources​

Last Updated: 2026-09-26

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