The allegory of the cave and education in Plato: the educator as the liberator of ignorance

Abstract

This paper aims to reflect on the allegory of the cave in book VII of the Platonic dialogue Repúblic and its relationship with paideia (education and/or the educational process) in the face of the educator's training process. To this end, our approach will go through the issues that relate education and society, seeking to present their intrinsic relationship, where the lack of the first implies a tearing of the second. We will deal with the image of allegory as paideia dealing with the human condition and its formative process. Later, we will understand the way to abandon illusions in search of the truth that allegory proposes to us and the importance of paideia as a conversion that will prepare the best of the educator's soul towards knowing, the idea of ​​Good. After these discussions, we will discuss how essential is the good training of educators and how harmful it can become if it is not carried out properly and how the education professional has been related to the problems of the environment and the lack of government attention. Finally, when dealing with the proposed reflection exercises, the question that will guide us is to think about the implications for the educator and whether their role has led to the mission of liberating individuals from their state of ignorance.