Plato's myth of the cavern, also known as the allegory of the cave, it is not a philosophical myth, but rather a pedagogical allegory, and it is precisely there where the true message of Plato´s allegory is.

This easy and brief book to read has three parts. The first part is where it describes the scenario of the cavern, the wall, the fireplace and the prisoners. The second part narrates the liberation stage, to conclude with the last part that narrates the return to the cavern and the final outcome.

From an early age, we have listened to the essence of "The Myth of Plato's cave", and what we have been told is no more than a graphic representation of a cave where people have been imprisoned from birth. These prisoners are chained so that they are fixed, forcing them to gaze at the wall in front of them and not look around at the cave, each other, or themselves. Behind the prisoners there is a wall and just behind the Wall there is a fire. All arranged in a linear manner and in that exact order. Between the fire and the low wall, unchained people walk carrying objects or puppets of men and other living things. The people walk behind the wall so their bodies do not cast shadows for the prisoners to see, but the objects they carry do. The prisoners cannot see any of what is happening behind them, they are only able to see the shadows cast upon the cave wall in front of them.

Due to the circumstances and the cave itself, the shadows are the only reality for the prisoners because they have never seen anything else from birth; they do not realize that what they see are shadows of objects in front of a fire, much less that these objects are inspired by real things outside the cave. And it is at this stage of Plato´s work, where most people terminate interpreting the myth of Plato's cave because if you had read this book fully, the message that would have been transmitted by word of mouth would have been very different one. Only in such a case, Plato´s play would have been understood as myth rather than an allegory.
The knowledge that is transmitted into society on Plato's myth of the cavern is that "it is not always true everything we see." However, this was not the message that Plato wanted to leave us with…

Still on the subject, the story tells what would have happened if one of these prisoners to be released and brought into the light of the fireplace, contemplating, in this way, a new reality; that is to say what are the shadows. Once the prisoner has taken on this new situation, it is taken out of the cavern, appreciating a new second external reality (trees, forests, rivers, seas, sky, day, night and the sun, among many other things.

The allegory terminates just when the prisoner returns to the interior of the Cavern to "liberate" to his friends, and explain to them how wrong they were about their concept of reality. However, his friends laugh at him claiming that his eyes have been spoiled by now be blinded by the passage of the clarity of the sun to the darkness of the cave. To what his friends asserted: The journey was not worth it. However, when this tries to unchain them and take his friends towards the light and outside the cave, Plato unleashes the following question: Do you think his friends would kill him? And Plato responds: Without a doubt! They will kill him at the first possible opportunity.
 

Competition and Entrepreneurship is a book with many interesting insights. Kirzner provides a thorough critique of contemporary price theory, theory of entrepreneurship, and the theory of competition. He sees orthodox price theory as explaining the configuration of prices and quantities that satisfied the conditions for equilibrium. He argues that "it is more useful to look to price theory to help understand how the decisions of individual participants in the market interact to generate the market forces which compel changes in prices, outputs, and methods of production and in the allocation of resources". Although Competition and Entrepreneurship is primarily concerned with the operation of the market economy, Kirzner clearly shows that the rediscovery of the entrepreneur must emerge as a step of major importance.

"Creative destruction," he said, is the driving force of capitalism. His vision was stark: Nearly all businesses fail, victims of innovation by their competitors. Businesspeople ignore this lesson at their peril - to survive, they must be entrepreneurial and think strategically. Yet in Schumpeter's view, the general prosperity produced by the "capitalist engine" far outweighs the wreckage it leaves behind. "Prophet of Innovation" is also the private story of a man rescued repeatedly by women who loved him and put his well-being above their own. Without them, he would likely have perished, so fierce were his conflicts between his reason and his emotions.

This book looks for the first time at the relationships among these elements: innovation, intrapreneurship, and corporate culture; and indicates how these three elements can be integrated to achieve the maximum advantage in global market competition. Oden makes clear that corporations must have not only a culture that supports innovation and intrapreneurship, but an organization and work force that can adapt quickly to exigencies. Also required is a well-structured venturing process. He describes this process in the second part of the book, breaking it down into three phases: concept development, technical development, and business development. 

Written in non-technical terms, this book explains how the dynamics of big business have influenced national and international economies. A path-breaking study, it provides the first systematic treatment of big business in advanced, emerging, and centrally-planned economies from the late nineteenth century, when big businesses first appeared in American and West European manufacturing, to the present. Large industrial enterprises play a vital role in developing new technologies and commercializing new products in all of the major countries. How such firms emerged and evolved in different economic, political, and social settings constitutes a significant part of twentieth-century world history. This historical review of big business is particularly valuable today, when the viability of large enterprises is being challenged by small firms, networks, and alliances. These essays, written by internationally-known historians and economists, help one understand the essential role and functions of big business