The republic has often been considered one of the greatest expressions of idealist philosophy and plato's most thorough statement on education. Writing in the fourth century,B.C., Plato described his utopian view of human society. It was not unusual for him to dpict central ideas in allegorical format.In this selection,he shows socrates attempting to expain how achieving higher levels of thought(i.e.,thinking philosophically),is akin to prisoners escaping from their shadowy prison in a cave.Plato demonstrates both the painful difficulty of the ascent toward wisdom and its potentially dangerous consequences.Many scholars believe the story parallels Socrates own life and death.