The Allegory of the Cave
In The Republic the great philosopher, Plato, addresses his well known interpretation of how society perceives the world and not reality. The Allegory of the Cave can be symbolize to modern time how people live in a world of ignorance and are yet to be enlightened by the absolute truth.
In Book VII of The Republic, Plato asserts his metaphor of the cave that shows the lack of education affects our perception or consciousness of ones surroundings. Plato describes a cave in which prisoners are kept since childhood. These prisoners are held in a peculiar manner where they are all chained to be unable to see what is behind them and are only to face the wall of the cave. All their lives they were only able to see shadows
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The prisoner begins to question his reality so he starts to explore the cave and finds a passage leading to the outside world. This represents when one becomes enlightened and finds himself understanding the true form of reality while the other prisoners are seeing an abstract model of it. This can conclude that there is a way to get out of the cave in the modern time by becoming knowledgeable and leaving the illusion of the world we call perfect and to be perfect. It is impossible to perceive the truth or reality with our senses we tend to use every day, so Plato suggest we use a spiritual perception to reject and break the world of material chains as an ideal concept to become enlightened. This spiritual perception can be achieved through education in which each individual is given the power or chance to become wiser and start questioning our reality. The Allegory of the Cave can also resemble to Eastern Philosophy how society lives only through the human ego and in order to get out of the state of delusion living in one state of conscience we would have to lead a moral life, be mindful and aware of our thoughts and to develop wisdom and understanding
In the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato breaks the story into four main scenes to demonstrate the path to enlightenment for the unenlightened reader. He uses a story of a man trapped in a cave,
In Plato’s allegory of the cave, it also suggests an alternate world, a world that isn’t recognizably like, in " Allegory of the Cave “and in "The Machine Stops" they both throughout the story
In “The Allegory of the Cave”, Plato’s idea of the human who escaped the cave, but came back to tell about his learnings but the other people in the cave did not want to listen to him since they believed that the cave was the real truth and did not want to be educated about the outside
The people who are chained up get set free by the keeper, who is a symbol of the sun, or the “Rooster” who wakes people up from their illusions. The people are blinded by the sun and they want to go back to their illusion of life. This is when the people are in the Belly of the Whale or when they are symbolically dead. Once the people realize there is no way of going back to the way it was, they are “reborn” from their illusions and live their lives to the fullest and not take for granted what they have. Plato’s Allegory of the cave is
Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society. The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in.
Plato’s short story the Allegory of the Cave, Plato portrays a scene in a cave to the reader that analyzes human actions. The story is about a group of men that are chained for their entire life. The only thing they are exposed to are shadows on the wall of a fire burning by people behind them. The people exposing these men are hiding the truth of the outside world. Plato reveals that humans are easily fooled into believing what they see.
Truth is often a term that is taken into consideration when one is verbally speaking, but most find it rather difficult to truly define truth. While every person can attempt to uniquely give their own interpretation to what the world regards as truth, the realm of philosophy presents several brilliants ideas about the concept. In general, the study of philosophy recognizes two truths: objective and subjective. Objective truth can be described as truth that has always existed whether one knows it or not, while subjective truth is dependent on the person’s ideas and feelings towards a reality. Influential and well-known philosophers such as Mortimer J. Adler and Plato have contributed thoughts that often present similar ideas about the definition
Additionally, Plato utilizes the cave and the light within and without of the cave to symbolize the misconception of one’s perception and the actual truth. For example, in the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato says, “the prison-house is the world of sight” (203). He implies the cave is a limit of what one can see, while outside of the cave there are no limits to perceiving an idea. Being limited to what one is able to experience, the individual will view a concept with difficulty to knowing the truth. While one who is not limited to experiences, he or she is able to question and deeply understand the truth.
In order to fully comprehend knowledge Plato provides an explanation through his illustration of the Allegory of the Cave. To do this Plato differentiates between individuals who mistake sensual knowledge for the truth and individuals who actually do see the truth. Plato places prisoners inside a cave who have been there since birth and have never seen the outside of it. Inside the cave there is a wall that the prisoners consistently stare at. People outside of the cave walk along the wall which then projects shadows of the objects they are essentially ‘holding’.
Socrates’s allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic Book VII is an accurate depiction of how people can be blinded by what they are only allowed to see. The allegory does have relevance to our modern world. In fact, all of us as a species are still in the “cave” no matter how intelligent or enlightened we think we have become. In Plato’s Republic Book VII, Socrates depicts the scenario in a cave where there are prisoners who are fixed only being able to look at the shadows on the wall which are projections of things passing between them and the light source.
In “The allegory of the Cave by Plato”, great philosophers offer a theory concerning human perception. Plato described it starting with three prisoners; these prisoners would have face the wall of the cave in a set position. They would not be allowed to move. A fire would be placed behind them with a walkway between. Along the walkway, people would walk carrying different items.
For starters, I believe that Plato’s reason for writing the Allegory of the Cave is to encourage everyone in the world to venture out from the normal. As the Allegory of the Cave begins, Plato leads us to creating a visual in our head of a dark cave with no sunlight. Inside this dark cave, is fire and people chained to a wall seeing shadows. The shadows that the people see are created by the fire, thoughts on their minds, and what they believe others in the cave are saying.
#2 Plato’s Allegory In Modern Day Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is about the human perspective and enlightenment. In todays society Plato’s allegory is still relevant and is deeply rooted in education. College students are a perfect analogy for the “Allegory of the Cave”. We are told from the very beginning that we need to have an education to be successful in life.
They are tied in such a way that they are unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. The prisoners are chained since their childhood and have not seen the outside world ever. Behind them burns a fire. In between the fire and the prisoners there is a small path which is used by the people.
The Allegory of the Cave written by Plato is one the most insightful philosophical writings that talks about the reality and nature of life. This has something to do with Plato’s way of thinking towards the true picture between the two boundaries of the world; reality of life and imaginary world. This represents the mans’ eagerness and desire to answer different questions about reality. Is the human knowledge enough to find the answers of all the questions about the reality of life? It helps us to decipher things that surrounds us, the truth that will open our eyes to accept that we cannot learn with proper guidance and teachings.