This statement tells Plato's conception of reality. According to Plato, reality is a shadow of an idea. According to Plato, idea is the ultimate reality. Ideas belong to the world of essence which is beyond the world of appearance. Idea is the perfect form of anything. Physical objects may change but idea is permanent.
His theory of ideas comes from Socrates theory of knowledge. Plato wants to make an ideal state. To make an ideal state there must have an idea of it. Man of reason has idea. According to Plato, reality is important for a good life. It tells about 'what it is'. But ideas transform from 'what it is' to 'what ought to be'. It is the essence of everything. It is intangible. In order to establish his view, Plato gives the allegory of the cave. According to Plato when we are in a state of ignorance, we consider a world of appearance as real. Our situation is like the man inside the cave with his back toward the sunlight and hands tied. Only when this person is pushed out of the cave, he will realize that what he was considering real was just the illusion of reality or shadow of reality. Only when he has true knowledge he can understand the difference between reality and idea. True knowledge is permanent in nature and did not change like the physical world.
The message behind the above statement is that the ruling class should understand that the physical world is temporary in nature. They should understand that money is not the ultimate source of happiness. It is more important to be a man of integrity rather than a man of wealth or a man of property. Integrity is the utmost virtue or quality of being honest and having strong moral principles.
We can say that Plato has established the superiority of idea over matter, philosophy over physics and he should be rightly called as 'Father of Political Philosophy'.
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