Plato’s description of forms makes sense in the eyes of civilization and the process of education. If a prisoner sees nothing but shadows his whole life then he is raised to believe that life is a matter of shadows. With a proper introduction, into the world
around him, would help him understand the world he is actually in. This education would not be able to be accomplished in a matter of seconds, and would take time to teach him about everything in the cave prior to, him walking out and seeing the “Real World”. Now as this man is taught, his discipline would sustain him through his thought process, as long as he has a sense of discipline. In my opinion though, Plato put it in a simple format. There would have to be many other factors that would have to be taught to the prisoner, before the prisoner could fully respect the world around him, i.e. right and wrong.
It would be immoral to introduce a man to the world in a split second. The man would be no more than a cave dweller, who runs ramped with out boundaries. He would no doubt be using his natural instincts. If the prisoner was introduced to the world, and the man had a better understanding of the world around him, when returned to his place as a prisoner in the world, it would no doubt drive the man insane, knowing that there was something better than darkness and shadows.
While I read about Plato’s idea of “Good”, I feel that “Good” is actually a reference to Nature and being related directly to God. The reason I say this is because Plato referred to the sun as a descendant of god. Therefore, the sun provides God’s will upon the subjects of Earth/Universe. We are going to take a trip for a minute. Let’s say for one moment that Nature wasn’t something God created to regulate the beings on Earth/Universe, then, like dirt; animals; plants; water; we as humans would have complete control over Nature. Humans have a misunderstanding of control. The reality is that humans have no control over anything other than their own actions. That puts humans into the society we have today, where we have no choice but to fit in. The idea mankind carries is, that people are and will be completely and totally right until the end of our existence, which, will be at our own demise due to our unwillingness to understand every aspect of Life. Unless, we start to completely understand that we cannot create life, other than offspring, but we do have the capability to destroy life.