Mar 2020
TO SEE THE SUN
Socrates, in Plato’s Republic, says only guardians
become philosopher-kings. I disagree. Everyone is
a philosopher-king if ever one finds his inner-self and
adheres to its truths. Socrates says the sun is the
Form of the Good, the source of everything in the
intelligible world. In a figurative sense, Socrates is
right. With few exceptions, everyone lives in the
Cave. Forms, not appearances, are reality. Plato’s
best form of government leans toward the autocratic,
but Plato’s arguments are meant to provoke, not
dictate. Plato, and Socrates through him, miss the
most cogent message, I believe. Shakespeare,
through Polonius to his son, Laertes, hits the bulls-
eye: “This above all. To thine ownself be true, and
it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not
then be false to any man.”
Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks
Socrates, in Plato’s Republic, says only guardians
become philosopher-kings. I disagree. Everyone is
a philosopher-king if ever one finds his inner-self and
adheres to its truths. Socrates says the sun is the
Form of the Good, the source of everything in the
intelligible world. In a figurative sense, Socrates is
right. With few exceptions, everyone lives in the
Cave. Forms, not appearances, are reality. Plato’s
best form of government leans toward the autocratic,
but Plato’s arguments are meant to provoke, not
dictate. Plato, and Socrates through him, miss the
most cogent message, I believe. Shakespeare,
through Polonius to his son, Laertes, hits the bulls-
eye: “This above all. To thine ownself be true, and
it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not
then be false to any man.”
Copyright 2020 Tod Howard Hawks
A graduate of Andover and Columbia College, Columbia University, Tod Howard Hawks has been a poet and human-rights advocate his entire adult life. He recently finished his novel, A CHILD FOR AMARANTH.
