Plato's Republic

Plato's Republic aimed to explain to us what it is like to live in the world when you are educated versus when you are uneducated through his metaphor involving the cave, fire, and shadows. He discusses how unfavorable it is for a newly educated person to go back to an environment with uneducated people as she/he would be ridiculed for their newfound educated beliefs. He encourages educated people to share their knowledge with the uneducated "prisoners in the cave". He advocates for a better world in which each class should share their skills, talents, and knowledge with each other so each class can improve and live in harmony. He also believes it is better for rulers of a society to not have the desire to rule than to have multiple people fighting over ruling the society.

Plato discusses understanding and empathy when it comes to people and their educational situation in the passage:

"But anyone with any understanding would remember that they eyes may be confused in two ways and from two causes, namely, when they've come from the light into the darkness and when they've come from the darkness into the light. Realizing that the same applies to the soul, when someone sees a soul disturbed and unable to see something, he won't laugh mindlessly, but he'll take into consideration whether it has come from a brighter life and is dimmed through not having yet become accustomed to the dark or whether it has come from greater ignorance into greater light and is dazzled by the increased brilliance. Then he'll declare the first soul happy in its experience and life, and he'll pity the latter -- but even if he chose to make fun of it, at least he'd be less ridiculous than if he laughed at a soul that has come from the light above."
In this passage, Plato attempts to ruminate on, and perhaps even empathize with, the lives of those who see things are they really are due to their education living in a world surrounded by uneducated people that would not understand and would most likely ridicule the educated person for being different and having alternate views. This portion of the passage is significant because it opens our eyes to the possibility that just because someone has alternate views, it does not automatically make them abnormal, nor does it give cause for the person to be made fun of. The second part of this passage is about how people's confusion may be a result of one's situation when it comes to their exposure to light and darkness and that it is worse to have come from darkness into light than to come from light into darkness. This is significant because it causes us to re-evaluate how we see educated people and uneducated people.

I agree with Plato's argument when it comes to educated people being ridiculed by uneducated people because more often than not when people have different viewpoints, they tend to scoff at the other's. I would argue, however, that the same can be said when an uneducated person come into a world surrounded by educated people. This ridicule experienced is a two way street, depending on what environment you are in and whether you are educated or uneducated. His argument about it being better to come from light into darkness leaves me hesitant because there are pros and cons to being in both the light and the darkness. In essence, everybody brings their own opinions and backgrounds to the table, providing us with a diverse population and this diversity makes us stronger.