ABSTRACT
One of Plato’s more striking images is that of the ‘eye of the soul’, that faculty with which the human being can contemplate true reality. In Book VII of the (Republic, we find a number of references to this faculty, and to the necessity for cultivating its vision. At 518CD, 1 as we know, Socrates declares that education should not be seen as a matter of introducing sight into blind eyes, but rather of
turning the mind’s eye away from the world of becoming, until it becomes capable of bearing the sight of real being and reality at its most bright … Educators should devise the simplest and the most effective methods of turning minds around. It shouldn’t be the art of implanting sight in the organ, but should proceed on the understanding that the organ already has the capacity, but is improperly aligned and isn’t facing the right way.
(trs Robin Waterfield)