The Need to Philosophise from the Allegory of the Cave

Can we see reality? Are we sure of everything we experience and believe? In times of paradigms and unknowns, something very old and always new is needed: philosophising. To do this, we can't assume that we know everything, but by progressing along a path of knowledge and reflection, we will arrive at what philosophy really means. In Book VII of the Platonic Republic we have the Socratic example of how through memory and personal effort we can discern all things. Far from any absolute, ideological sophistry, Plato invites us to face up to uncertainties, to break away from easy, practical schemes that don't require us to make any enquiries.