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Real vs. Ideal, Machiavelli vs. Plato
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While examining whether real can become ideal or vice versa, I will first explore Plato and Machiavelli’s own sense of real or ideal. Since both of these historical figures are different from each other in terms of perspective on the issue it becomes a difficult task to ascertain what truly is real and ideal. Idealism pertains to thinking of things in their ideal form rather than as they really are, or the principle that ideas are the only reality. Reality deals with the opposite of idealism, relating to thinking of things as they actually are rather than as what you might want them to be. Allow me to interpret the allegory so that we may further understand the idea of real versus ideal for Plato. He represents ignorance as the cave (where shadows are the prisoners subjective truths), and the journey upward as education until they reach enlightenment, the sun – or objective truth. Through those representations alone he shows us how ideal can become real, by the prisoners “steep and rugged ascent” from the reality of the cave (subjective truth, emblematic of Plato’s Republic) to Daylight or the Sun (the objective truth).
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