Impact of Media and Public Opinion on Foreign Policy Decisions

The Impact of media and public opinion  on foreign policy decisions

Media and public opinion have a significant influence on foreign policy decisions. The United States media and public lead in this concept as they immensely shape the country’s foreign policy compared to other nations. Initially, it was considered that public opinion had little influence over foreign policy, however, research findings have confirmed that, compared to other factors, it a key factor that influence the foreign policy (Soroka, 27). Thus, the public and media are important internal factors which influence foreign policy of any country.

Introduction

Foreign policy involves the systematic principles, actions and decisions taken by a particular nation to extend appreciation of mutual relations between the nation and other global countries. Its core objective is to promote and protect the crucial interests of a given state. The public forms the primary component of any democratic and economically thriving nation. Democracy advocates that public opinions should play a role in formulating policy upshots including a nation’s foreign policy. Public support in government-led decisions and actions are important in establishing political legitimacy to defend the country’s foreign policy (Gribble, et al, 128). However, there is a widespread incoherence in foreign policy views as most of the public fail to create and express their opinions on its outcome (Gaubatz, 536). According to Ali, Khalid and Khan, decision making in foreign policy occurs in a framework partly occasioned by the media. In this regard, mass media participates in almost all stages of formulating a foreign policy. Political leadership has the mandate to establish a country’s foreign policy. Nonetheless, the leadership relies much on the media to learn on the events in the international arena. Eventually, this aspect sets the process of foreign policy in motion. This paper seeks to examine the relationship between the public opinion, media and the foreign policy.

Comparative Analysis of Internal factors that Influence Foreign Policy including the Media and Public Opinion

Not only the public opinion and media form the internal factors that influence foreign policy but also others such as technology, size of the nation’s territory, social structure and national capacity (Ali, Khalid & Khan). Although state organs design the foreign policy, it is directed by the circumstances and options within the nation (Petri, 80). All the internal factors are equally important in shaping a country’s foreign policy, however, public opinion and the media are more objective illustrating the unique characteristics of the given nation. Public opinion offers a quantitative measure of a state’s population and available resources highly valuable to the citizens. Apparently, the public opinion is essentially significant in modelling foreign policy. The media serves as a monitoring and analytical tool on not only international but also national matters. The media through a broad though succinct coverage communicate and magnify different variations in the opinion of the elite in regard to foreign policy (Jentleson & Britton, 399). This aspect gives the public an opportunity to synthesize clear information that guides their opinion.

The public opinion is not restricted in the country of concern but also on the global nations. Expectations on various relative benefits and costs of foreign policy decisions are also dependent on the world public opinion (Gaubatz, 541). Citizens always have varying interests spanning across borders (Petri, 81). For instance, Jews opinion matter a lot in the U.S foreign policy and decision making restricting some actions in the Middle East. Public opinion represents the population voice which more often than not either obstructs or dictates foreign policy. The media creates an extensive avenue through which a foreign policy manoeuvres or is restricted. Knowledge of international events is an important aspect in creating a foreign policy. The media relays this significant information to other actors in the foreign policy formulation process. The media has the ability to reach deeper in certain situations within a given state that could prove challenging to reach by the diplomatic missions. As such, the media offers a link between highly classified information and the stakeholders in the decision making process. It breaks down, poor diplomatic services and unnecessary bureaucracy that inhibits access to crucial data required in the designing the foreign policy (82).

Most of the main decision makers in foreign policy, by virtue of their leadership positions they exercise delegated authority subject to public approval. Presidents, prime ministers and chancellors not only exercise their intellectual, character and personal qualities in decision making but must also put into consideration the important public opinion before making any conclusion. Public experience and beliefs can cause a major obstacle to foreign policy. Precedential actions taken previously could have had adverse effects on the public and as such the ideas and opinion by the public would be important before formulating a policy that could lead to the same circumstances (Petri, 83). For instance Iraq invasion in 2003 has had far reaching consequences to the Americans as a result of a foreign policy mostly see to have been flawed or rushed in its formulation stages. Although some Congressmen such as James Marshall opined that the media was creating a weak picture of the policy, (Baum & Potter, 40), it was only offering the public clear information on the events in the international arena and their impact to the American soil. However, the media coverage of the occurrences in Iraq and other terrorist cells profoundly shaped the public opinion on the war. In this case it can be concluded that, the media and the public cut across each other in the pursuit of an informed nation and proper leadership and decision making.

Role of the Media in Formulation of the U.S Foreign Policy

The media plays a crucial role in telecasting, publishing and broadcasting the foreign policy of the United States. Media contribution in policy formulation is overly seen in the dissemination of factual data to the citizens. It publishes various articles on current national and international events which allow the public to understand development and analysis of the government policy related to foreign affairs (Ali, Khalid & Khan). The media provides the primary conduit between the public and the policy makers. Actually, policy makers follow reports from the media on public opinion in regard to certain aspects of U.S foreign policy. The same media relays back the policy makers’ decisions and actions to the public (Soroka, 28). Observing the important role media plays in shaping the opinion of the political leaders, (29), Soroka says that “media may be not successful in telling people what to think, but it is stunningly successful in telling its readers what to think about.” In this regard, the media is a key proponent of issues of concern that require utmost attention from policy makers.

On a different note, Ali, Khalid and Khan suggest that there is a conflict on the real impact of the media to foreign policy. However, journalists, scholars and policy makers support the assertion that the media really influences the process of formulating foreign policy. Some pundits augment that the media open the formulation process to less informed public or take the foreign policy off the hands of the professional elite or it serves the interest of the elite. Petri (84) says that the media exerts considerable pressure that influences decision making on foreign policy. Arguably, the media sees circumstances like those in the international community but caused by the foreign policy action and decisions of either other states, of their own country, specific group such as cults or terrorists or of international organizations in a special way. The media conducts an in-depth analysis not only on the ultimate outcome of the policy but also on the situations that led to its formulation. In this case, it harries policymakers into acting on a particular crisis; creating inducements to react while at the same time, raising the risk of not taking a concrete action.

The media may consider the foreign policy too intransigent, aggressive or lenient to the targeted nation or group of states (Petri, 86). However, accurate analysis of the situation can only be driven by an apt access to important information. According to Baum and Potter (42) the market place of the foreign policy is driven by distribution of the primary market commodity; that is information. Although information typically favours leaders and the decision makers, dissemination of the same to the public and relay of the feedback to the policy makers is essential. The media plays the role, providing the medium of communication, monitoring and analysis of the information from both sides. Wiarda and Skelley (50) comment that ideas and the principles of a country’s political culture are translated into a policy through the media. However, the media can be used to promote skewed foreign policy though manipulating the information being passed to the public. Although this measure is taken to advance the public support for the reigning policy it may have adverse casualties. During the World War I, the media played a key role in supporting the U.S foreign policy against its enemies. Information was controlled through the Creel Committee to manipulate it. Journalists were involved in encouraging public patriotism and hatred for esteemed enemies, support military, Wilson administration and the diplomatic policy (Ali, Khalid & Khan). Wiarda and Skelley (51) observe that the media could delay formulation of a foreign policy through feeding less informed interest groups with critical information. The groups clash on their interests and as such forces the government to seek ways of reconciling the varying interests to avoid hurting either group. This process is time consuming and as such derails the establishment of the policy.

During the war in Iraq, the media played a key role in disseminating information and creating the public opinion. It was important for the Bush Administration to gain the support of the American people and as such it needed the media to propagate its mission. This is because the public favoured non-military intervention (Jentleson & Britton, 415). However, the government needed a tool to create misconception on the reality that Saddam Hussein was dangerous and he harboured weapons of mass destruction. Actually, the public does not just develop delusions in a vacuum (Kull, Ramsay & Lewis, 570). The Bush administration released information to the public though with implications. The media played a key role in transmitting the information, critical analysis of the same and creation of news that the public could not desist paying attention to. In such a way, the media influenced public opinion and by extension promoted the Bush foreign policy in Iraq. It managed to create a misconception linking the Iraq to Al-Qaida (571) and weapons of mass destruction (572).

Role of the Public Opinion in Formulation of the U.S Foreign Policy

Policy makers decide on the actions to take as a response to public opinion as passed to them through the media (Soroka, 28). It is clear that once public opinion is communicated to the leaders it form the basis of their consultations on various matters of policy important to the citizens. This way, the public opinion plays a key role in agenda-setting among the policy makers (Foyle, 274). The public opinion more often than not drives foreign policy though to some extent it creates an impediment to decision making as such restricting the various activities in the process of establishing a concrete foreign policy. Some UK citizens were against the war at Iraq however , the majority felt the need for invasion to protect UK from the impact of terrorism(Gribble, et al, 135) .However, despite the imminent barrier imposed by the public opinion to whose favour either in the international realm or within the country, the policy is being made for cannot be ignored. Therefore, public opinion even from third nations should be significantly considered as it may either hinder or support the objective of the foreign policy. For instance, involvement of the international community Herzegovina and Bosnia and eventually in Kosovo was influenced largely by the global public opinion especially Western Europe and United States. On the other hand, the Serbian public opinion held hostage their country’s foreign policy over Kosovo.

The public exemplifies a complex yet well-developed relationship of the people to different major trends and processes in the international community and the foreign policy. In shaping the foreign policy, Petri (86) observes that “informed public opinion includes the opinions and assessments of those persons who are not directly involved in foreign policy decision-making, but are experts in foreign policy problems in general terms or in specific foreign policy issues.” In other words, public opinion is all inclusive and comprises of expert views from intellectual elite on matters that concern foreign policy. The experts come from a pool of researchers, university academicians, retired diplomats, eminent journalists as well as present and retired parliamentarians. However, experts are supposed to offer a market place of ideas that shapes public opinion. In the wake of the war against Iraq, the market place ideas failed to convince Americans the war was flawed and too costly to the American taxpayers. The Bush administrations used “2002-03 foreign policy” to lure the public into supporting the Iraq invasion (Kaufmann, 5). Rather than offering factual information some of the pundits engaged in the propagation of the over exaggerated war justification. For instance Kenneth Pollack used his book to convince liberals and moderates who would not have bored to the insinuations from the Bush administration (11).

Guraziu (4), augments that the former Secretary of State offered a clear assertion on the influence of public opinion to the formulation of foreign policy in that “statespersons are constrained by two sets of influences: politics, power, and actions of other nations; and domestic constraints, ranging from public opinion to the attitudes of the government and bureaucracy.” Public opinion is important in identification of various alternatives and choices in the process of formulating a foreign policy. In the Iraq invasion, the public sided with those supporting the resolution for an attack and this gave the government a clear choice (Foyle, 282).The fact that, policy making process is a rational undertaking, policy makers are constrained to take actions that would produce the best results in the realm of the public opinion. In this case, it is evident that the public opinion played a key role in determining the outcome of the decision making. In fact, the extensive public support for the need to initiate a military feat against Iraq moulded the Bush administration policy and support from the Congress (289). However, the Bush administration ignored world public opinion that sought some time before U.S attacks Iraq. Majority of the world favoured time to create a solid international support. PIPA/KN polls illustrated that the Americans misconceived the opinion of the world public on the U.S decision to invade Iraq. Right before and after the war, U.S propagated that it was fight against terrorism; however, the Muslim public opinion presents it as a war against their religion (Kull, Ramsay & Lewis, 573).

Conclusion

Public opinion and the media are important factors in shaping a country’s foreign policy. Initially, public and the media were not considered as key players in the formulation process of the foreign policy. However, currently, they take part in almost all the stages of the process. Modern foreign policy involves an array of systematic values, decision and actions taken by a country to protect and promote its interests and relations with another nation or a group of states. Democracy allows the public to participate in policy formulation. In this undertaking, the media is essential to relay crucial information between policy makers and the public. It not only passes information but also influences public opinion and the decision of the leaders. In the U.S the public opinion and the media impact the outcome of a particular foreign policy. The media exercises its effect through broadcasting, telecasting and publishing articles on national and international events. On the other hand public opinion offers alternatives and choices provided by the citizens in regard to the projected policy. Thus, compared to other factors, the media and public opinion have a significant influence on foreign policy decisions.

Works Cited

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Baum Mathew A. & Philip B.K. Potter. The relationsips between Mass Media, Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy: Toward Theoretical Synthesis. Annual Review of Political Science.  2008. 11:39-65 Web. 20 March 2016 < http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/mbaum/documents/BaumPotter_AnnualReview2008.pdf>

Foyle Douglas C. Leading the Public to War? The Influence of American Public Opinion on the Bush Administration’s Decision to Go to War in Iraq. International Journal of Public Opinion Research 2004: Vol. 16 (3) 269-292

Gaubatz Kurt Taylor. Intervention and Intransitivity: Public Opinion, Social Choice, and the Use of Military Force Abroad. World Politics 1995; Vol. 47 (4) 534-554

Gribble et al. British Public Opinion after a Decade of War: Attitudes to Iraq and Afghanistan. Politics2015: 35 (2) 128-150

Guraziu Rudi. To what Extent is foreign Policy making affected by Public Opinion in a Liberal Democracy? 2008: 2-16. Web. 20 March 2016 < http://www.atlantic-community.org/app/webroot/files/articlepdf/To%20what%20extent%20is%20foreign%20policy%20making%20affected%20by%20public%20opinion.pdf>

Jentleson Bruce W. & Rebecca L. Britton. Still Pretty Prudent: Post-Cold War American public Opinion on the Use of Military Force. The Journal of Conflict Resolution.  1998: Vol. 42 (4) 395-417.

Kaufmann Chaim. Threat Inflation and the Failure of the Marketplace of Ideas.  International Security.  2004: Vol. 29 (1) 5-48

Kull Steven, Clay Ramsay & Evan Lewis. Misperceptions, the Media and the Iraq War. Political Science Quarterly 2004: Vol. 118 (4) 569-598

Petri Ernest. Foreign Policy: From Conception to Diplomatic Practice. (2013) Leiden. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.

Soroka Stuart N. Media, Public Opinion, and Foreign Policy. Press/Politics 8 2003 :(1): 27-48 Web. 20 March 2016. < http://degreesofdemocracy.net/Soroka%28HIJPP%29.pdf>

Wiarda J. Howard & Esther M. Skelley. The Crisis of American Foreign Policy: The Effects of Divided America. (2006) Lanham, Maryland. Rowman & Littlefield.

 

Harrahs Entertainment Inc. Case Analysis

Harrah's Database Marketing Programs (DBM)

Harrah's approach in investing in its customers changed drastically after the implementation of its database marketing program. It involved the use of science tools to establish customer worthiness in its casino business. The company applied Proactive marketing Opportunity-based Customer segmentation experiments to track play preferences, customer betting configurations, casino points they liked to eat from, their overnight stay, frequency of visitation, and the amount the spend in play as well as time they spend playing. The casino combined this information with the application card data; home address and date of birth to design a complex yet useful client profiles. Information revealed that Harrah's 26% of customers yielded 82% of its revenue creating a clear business target for the casino. Using the available information Harrah's was able to predict the playing behaviour of its customers allowing it to identify probable opportunity segments. Consequently, the company used customer tailored marketing approach to attain specific business objectives such as driving the incremental budget, frequency or both components. The customized marketing enhanced the firm’s ability to identify the right customer and matching behaviour modification approach. As a result Harrahs designed various programs including new business program, the loyalty program-frequency upside, the loyalty program-budget upside, retentions program and total rewards program.

New Business Program

The new business program focused on the new customers who accessed and used Harrah's brand or property. Through this program the casino aimed at converting new clients to repeat customers. To achieve this goal, the company sought to encourage the novel players or visitors to make a second and third visit to the business. The company used this program to convert new Total Gold customer base into loyal clients. The new business program utilized theoretical wins from “predicted customer worth” to identify highly effective decisions on investment at the client level. Through this investment decision, the customer would receive a specific offer which would be more competitive than what the player was currently receiving under the prevailing options of choice. This program led to a more profitable and highly effective business program. Despite some lows the number of repeat customers visiting the Harrah's properties increased each month. For instance in April 1^st 1999, the company had 1022 new sign ups. Due to the new business program, the first, second and third months recorded 12%, 10% and 8% respectively in return customers translating to an overall 33% increase. Revenue grew by 34%, 33% and 32% in first, second and third months respectively making a 98% growth. Therefore, the new business program is highly a highly effective strategy in Harrah's.

The Loyalty Program-Frequency Upside

The aim of this program was to promote continuous relationship with the casino customers that would motivate them to remain loyal to the company products. It was designed to establish the casino clients that according to the Harrah's prediction were just remitting to Harrah's a lesser share from what they spend in total at a given market segment. Equipped with extensive capability, the program allowed Harrah's property marketers to initiate programs that provided incentives to the customers to increase their frequency of visiting the Harrah's property. In this case customers would be encouraged to switch their trips from the business rivals to the Harrah's. This program’s profitability was performed through analysis of the incremental program cost and comparing the results with the “incremental theoretical wins.” This program was effective in that customers’ visitation to the company properties increased from 24% in January 1999 to 31% in December the same year. In addition, revenue generation from the sampled clients grew from $12, 745 in January to $728,410 in December 1999.

The Loyalty Program-Budget Upside

Just like the loyalty program-frequency upside, the loyalty program-budget upside focused on cultivating prolonged relationship between the firm and its customers such that they could remain loyal to its products. The loyalty program-budget upside was used to identify casino clients who were providing small share to Harrah's from their gaming budget per trip to the property. The company recognized the fact that a customer’s allotted gaming budget was directly proportional to the order in which a customer visited the casinos in a specific trip. That is, the casino visited first attained the largest portion of the budget, followed by the second stop, with the last receiving the smallest share. Thus the ultimate goal of the loyalty program-budget upside was to inspire customers in a way such that they would consider Harrah's as their first stop during any gaming trip. Apparently, this concept would ensure the company gets the majority of the many single casino visits. Although the company was uncertain on the effectiveness of this program, its revenue grew from $18, 011in June 1999 to $59, 028 in March 2000 from customers entering the Harrah's property as their first stop. Therefore, the program is effective strategy in the company’s business ventures.

Retention Program

Retention of customers is an important element in promoting incremental revenue in an organization. Through the retention program, Harrah's aimed at reinvigorating clients who had illustrated attrition signs or had changed their pattern of historical visitation. It was a significant venture to ensure customers frequency was maintained at the peak. The company used various offers on a variety of customer segments to identify how much investment was needed to retain loyal clients. Over a prolonged period of time, Harrah's guests visitation frequency had declined rapidly especially in the last half of 1998. The customers had decreased the rate of visits they made to the Harrah's casino. In January 1999, the casino send direct mails to 8,000 clients while tracking their behaviour. Although the company used the program at the central level, it devolved it to local properties after realizing it could be more effective if maintained by individual property managers. As such, the marketing responsibility was placed on the property managers who could access most recent database of their customers. The retention margin grew from 14% with revenue of $1, 691,024 in July 1998 to 20% and $ 15, 163, 367 in revenue indicating that the program was indeed effective in the company.

Total Rewards Program

The total rewards program utilized the Total Gold program designed to encourage and promote cross-market pattern on visitation of the Harrah's clients. The company realized the occurrence that it lost a significant business share once its loyal guests visited distant destination markets such as Las Vegas but failed to stay at Harrah's property or play at it during their visit. The company projected that over $100 million in lost revenue was being generated at Las Vegas by the Harrah's customers alone. Based on the information provided, the total rewards program was designed to recapture the lost business through making it easier for the Harrah's patrons to earn and eventually redeem rewards impeccably at any of the company’s properties across the nation. To implement the program, Harrah's set up a network of incorporated information technology that connected all its properties in a single program. This network allowed the sharing of customer level data such as client gaming theoretical worth in real time across all the casinos. Through a patent right the technology was protected against duplication by the Harrah's business rivals.

This program was effective in the company as it enhanced incremental revenue. As a result of the program, the cross-market company revenue increased rapidly. This increase has seen revenue grow considerably from 13% generated in 1997 to the 23% recorded in 2000. The Las Vegas Harrah's property has since the integration of the program been generating an estimated 50% of its total property revenue from the total gold program. In conclusion, the Harrah's database marketing program was highly effective and profitable to the company.

Plato Philosophy-the symposium, the allegory of the cave and the Phaedrus

Plato Philosophy

Introduction

Plato, an ancient and influential philosopher, began his works under the teachings of Socrates. Establishing his philosophy school after the death of Socrates, Plato's main agenda was to pass the Socratic thinking style into his students, especially Aristotle. He aimed at guiding them through mathematical conceptual learning to enhance their in-depth understanding of philosophical context. His dialogues with Socrates form the basis of his teachings as the primary information source offers a clear understanding of the importance of philosophy. Plato presented various philosophical works including the symposium, the allegory of the cave and the Phaedrus. In his works, he offers a great excerpt on education, love of wisdom, and moral judgements. This paper seeks to discuss and explains Plato’s philosophical thinking and his views on various issues including the role of philosophy in eradicating ignorance.

Plato’s Philosophical Thinking

Plato’s philosophical thinking is highly persuasive in regard to understanding the place of philosophy in the society. According to Plato, as portrayed in the Phaedrus, the individual souls live in the continuous struggle while seeking salvation not only in the normal state but also in the earthly existence. In reality, both actions and choices of each person determine the way of his or her immortal soul over time. Given the complex structure of cause-and-effect, a universal testing on one’s soul defines individual’s happiness chances. Therefore, through the Phaedrus, Plato seeks to remind people of their own state that can be identified through millennia as differentiated from others and the one’s responsibility to exist.

Apparently, Plato conceptualized collectiveness rather than individual identity as an important aspect of the longevity of people’s lives on the planet. In the pursuit of the myth and argument of non-individualism, Plato augmented that human soul was not the key determinant of individual; identity. Thus, Plato invites humans to explore the soul though disregarding it as the core individuality principle but as a significant identifier of the community which is over and above one’s individuality through his thinking. In this case, an individual could only be considered as just a singular entity concerning causality and identity. Thus, the collectiveness of souls reveals that one should eternally comprehend the soul as an individual concerning determining the identity or proper analysis of the causal responsibility. As such, Plato fashioned non-individuality to convey the message of individual soul as a collective or unit to which it belongs.

It is clear that the world is pressed under the rule of forces over and above individuals. In this regard, the individual souls could be considered as a mass connotation that could in a way deny an individual the subject status of causality or identity. Thus, the individual soul could be viewed as a portion in the collectiveness of soul that determines the continuity of the individual soul parts. Plato observed this concept as the theory of immortality that considers the soul not as individual but non-individuality for the sake of persistence. Arguably, the love of a person goes beyond it as an identity and covers an establishment that transcends the individual soul. In this view, Plato, through the Phaedrus, fashioned Eros as an ultimate unity that forms the basis for an ostensible individual. Therefore, his ideas developed out of the consideration that love does not provide for the “unabridged person” but an “abstract form of characters” apparently consisting of the intricate web of their unique qualities.

In the classical pederasty system, Plato sought to socialize a young agent into a full greater rather than himself, of allowing him to operate and consider of himself as functioning in a “greater whole.” In this regard, the greater whole encompasses of the earth and individual humans are existing in it. Thus, the Plato thought of the classical pederasty system was also in the community but not individuality. Arguably, Plato’s theory of the Eros concluded that human reasons for expressing love toward an individual do not entirely refer to him or her as a “whole person” but a reflection of the greater community. Connecting the collectiveness thought and the consideration of immortality of the soul, Plato seeks not to delve on the survival of individual soul but takes an incoherent view that immaterializes soul. In this regard, the soul is considered as a spiritual element numerically similar in all humans.

Plato’s notion of “play and jokes” centred on their ability to express a noble speech over time. However, in the Symposium, Plato reflects on frankness and openness in speech. Holding the same thought, it is clear that, philosophy lean on theoretical comprehension of human affairs resonates with the practical business of political leadership that governs the affairs. Actually, through the Symposium, Plato stressed the role of political wisdom in persuading and governing people. Arguably, philosophy forms the basis of self-knowledge and understanding of issues that enables an individual to exercise power and leadership over human beings. In this regard, political leaders exemplify captivating stateliness that opens the gates to people’s appreciation of their presentation and political values. Apparently, Plato, in demonstrating the superiority of philosophy over poetry considered the ability of comedy to create unmatched appeal to humans. As such, philosophy appears as the real capstone to poetry in the fact that it illustrates a greater show of wisdom.

Plato considered that the independence of ideas was a reality and only that could be able to ensure objective knowledge and moral standards. Apparently, it is clear that forms or ideas are the simple models of all sequential occurrences, and nothing else is real but the ideas. The plans guarantee intelligence and order in a universe besieged by steady flux. Adding to Socrates' demonstration that individuals considered as competent in ethical issues did not have comprehension appropriate for useful human life, Plato brought in the notion that they lacked the ability to engage fully with desirable forms such as beauty, justice and equality.

Role of Philosophy in Eradicating Ignorance

Agreeing with Plato’s assertion on the place of education in eliminating ignorance cannot be underestimated. From the allegory of the Cave, Plato illustrated people lacking philosophical knowledge on the theory of forms as prisoners restrained in a cave, without the opportunity to “turn” their heads. Arguably, prisoners could only mistake reality with appearance since they lack knowledge. Plato attempts to demonstrate the importance of philosophers in the society in seeking wisdom and truth. However, it is clear that human beings are afraid of education or understanding the concepts of truth in philosophy. Mathematical reasoning is an important aspect in knowledge acquisition as it offers step by step understanding of various learning elements. Philosophy advocates the use of mathematical connotations such as hypotheses in comprehending philosophical forms such as justice, equality and beauty. It is also through philosophy that human beings can establish a clear-cut relationship between the state, cosmos and the soul. In broad spectrum, Plato considered educations a means to both social and individual justice.

Concerning education, Plato argues that individual justice could be achieved when every individual’s ability develops fully. In this regard he considered justice to mean excellence. From the allegory of the cave, Plato acknowledges that excellence is a virtue concluding that as a virtue it could be obtained through different steps; knowledge of individual’s job, self-knowledge and finally the knowledge of the notion of good. In connection to social justice, Plato augments that people could live harmoniously if the get equal opportunity in education earlier in life to establish a healthy competition. In the absence of equal educational chance, the society becomes unjust leading to defective democracy, oligarchy, tyranny or timocracy because governments are run by unqualified leaders. Therefore, to solve educational problems, the society needs the platonic theory on education to derive broad vision in developing appropriate solutions.

Conclusion

Plato developed a greater concern on the principal philosophical challenge of establishing art theory that would demonstrate knowledge and existence. Though he understood the radical harmonious organization of the universe, Plato sought to create a comprehensive yet succinct philosophical structure. In this regard, he tried to create a clear connection between cosmos, the soul and the state. Irrevocably, Plato aimed at showing the rational relationship that exists among the three elements. Thus, this was the fundamental theme of the allegory of the Cave, the Symposium and the Phaedrus. In his works, Plato offered a great excerpt on education, the love of wisdom and moral judgements. Apparently, philosophy is an important concept in understanding the individual soul and the connection of person’s to non-individuality. Considering the soul as a community, Plato presents human soul as immortal guided not by singular identity but collectiveness. Thus, Plato demonstrated an in-depth philosophical thinking that not only described the soul from non-individuality but also illustrated the role of philosophy in eradicating ignorance. Concerning education, Plato offered a clear analysis on achieving both individual and social justice through equal educational opportunity.