Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
allegory of the cave analysis
essays on plato
an analysis of the allegory of the cave
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: allegory of the cave analysis
Skepticism
Skepticism is one of the major themes in the movie Dark City. Among the skeptical thoughts observed, four of them are especially significant. They include Allegory of the Cave, Descartes’ evil genius argument, omphalos hypothesis and simulation hypothesis.
1. Allegory of the Cave
Dark City is a perfect illustration of the Allegory of the Cave, which is presented by Plato in the form of dialogues between Socrates and Glaucon. By comparing humans to prisoners in a cave, Plato argues that what we see are shadows projected on the wall, only that we mistake them for real knowledge which are named “forms”.
In the movie, the city is the cave in which citizens are trapped. Most of them have never left or even thought of leaving the place because they do not realize that they are imprisoned. Only have they left the city, can they see the real objects, so the citizens are ignorant about their situations. Moreover, even though they wish to leave, they may not be able to. Detective Walenski tells John that he has once thought of leaving the city, but it is impossible because the city is a cave confining the residents.
As John Murdoch escapes from the city with the help of Dr. Schreber, just as Glaucon discovers the truth after Socrates has explained to him, he is able to gain knowledge of the things around him.
2. Descartes’s Evil Genius Argument
Descartes’s evil genius argument hypothesizes that an all-powerful demon misleads our perception, so that our knowledge through reason or sense are unreliable. This hypothesis is substantialized in Dark City, where the Strangers are the evil demons who control their subjects’ minds. This is done by injection which produces the illusion of fake experiences.
The point is, many of the reside...
... middle of paper ...
... have the tendency to behave in the way that they can obtain their best interest.
For moral subjectivism, we can determine whether the behavior is moral or not according to our moral standard. When we at risk, like the strangers are facing the danger of extinction. We should find some solutions to overcome the danger. But it does not mean that we can do something evil to others. If we take others as samples, we are putting them at risk as well. If we really success in saving our lives by using others as samples, we are just shifting the problem to others but not solving it. It is meaningless and immoral to do that.
As a result, it is immoral even though we want to protect our own is a natural behavior. Only concern on our own interest is very selfish. Egoism may suggest a way for us to protect our own interest but it is not the best way for people to behave.
Plato’s allegory of the cave include the light, the objects, and the shadows. The novel named “The Picture of Dorian Grey” contains a purposeful meaning for each key component. In the cave, individuals are shown the shadows of puppets which they consider their reality; however, it’s only a “fake” representation of reality. Just as Dorian Grey’s beautiful appearance was merely a “fake” copy of himself when he was pure and innocent, it never disappeared because of his immortality. Yet, when the individuals have been shown the objects, they are skeptical about the “true” reality, not knowing that they are seeing the truth behind the shadows. Similar to the picture of Dorian Grey, which portrayed his ghastly appearance, contained his true-self
...gic of Chicago, but also the darkening madness of H.H. Holmes. This analysis of the book covers the city of Chicago being “the Black City,” before it hosted the World’s fair. Secondly, the glorious magic of Daniel Burnham did make this fair possible who all of his men that he worked with. Next, the city of Chicago when the fair was going on was a grand sight that people around the world would remember in history. Also, the unfortunate sight of the crimes and evil intention of H.H. Holmes had committed, that does put a black eye upon the fair. Finally, The Fair and how it has related to the historical trends of nineteenth century America. The Devil in the White City is an important novel that does tell of a great historical fair and a crime that has happened within the city of Chicago, the events there during that time period would be an important part in history.
The Allegory of the Cave is a hypothetical scenario, described by Plato, in the form of a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon. Socrates describes the picture of prisoners living in a cave where they have no source of light except for the one provided by the fire. There since birth, the prisoners live in a fixed position, staring at the shadows that are projected onto the walls. The puppeteers walk along a path behind the chained prisoners, each holding different objects. They live in a state of constant prediction, waiting for future shadows to be cast. As the objects reflect into shadows, the prisoners guess what the projections are and what they represent. The conversation reveals Socrates thoughts of human ignorance and the imprisonment of humans, trapped in society. It covers the search for truth and the desire to share it with others and free them from the bondage of ignorance. Socrates metaphor can represent education, religion, and our interaction with society. The prisoners in the cave lack education and you can
Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” A World of Ideas. 9th ed. Ed. Lee A.Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013.Print
... were outsiders may have contributed to their selfish, cowardly behavior. Thus, it is the individual who demonstrates a high degree of independence, a strong sense of duty where charity is concerned, and an ability to value every human life regardless of religion or ethnicity that will be most likely to selflessly aid people in distress. Conversely, it is the individual that lacks the aforementioned traits, who will be the least effective in assisting those in need.
Is it possible for human beings to rise above the sensory interpretation about the world and become an intellectual? Both Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and René Descartes’ “Cogito, Ergo Sum” examine this issue, and come to the conclusion that it is possible, and from this ascent, to become certain and rational. For each author, though, this is accomplished in different ways. Plato’s allegory points out that we need to look beyond the surface of the knowledge we learn and let the idea of good be our basis in life. Descartes expresses that we need to eliminate doubt in order for us to know certainty and feel comfortable in our knowledge.
Portraying the prisoners inside the cave for a lifetime further describes his beliefs on how closed minded society is in his opinion. The “light outside the cave” explains how he feels knowledge is the source of light to everyone’s lives. Without knowledge, there is lack of light. Also, since society does not want to gain further knowledge, they will seem to stay stuck in the dark tunnel. Plato also uses personification to give reader insight on how someone may treat the earth and appreciate it. For example, Plato states “Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.” The reasoning behind this is to explain how a man would reason with the sun as if it were an actual speaking person. The style of Plato’s writing gives readers an understanding on why his work is named “Allegory of the Cave”. The use of his rhetorical devices give deeper meanings to the Earth and the nature it
The novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson has many themes that present themselves throughout the book. One such recurring theme is a search for truth. The characters in the book do not fully realize that they are searching for truth, but they do feel a vague, "indescribable thing" that pushes and prods their minds to actualize a higher plane of thought. This search for a higher plane by the characters of Winesburg nearly parallels another literary work of ancient Greek origin- Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," which is a portion of his famous writing "The Republic." I contend that the town of Winesburg is the equivalent of the Cave in Plato's writing.
The Allegory of the Cave is a parable that demonstrates how humans are afraid of change and what they do not know. In this work, Plato suggests a situation in which men are living in an underground cave. The one entrance is located near the top and there, a burning fire casts shadow. The men of the cave are chained so that they can only see the wall and cannot turn around. When objects pass by it creates a shadow on the wall. The shadows are the only thing they can see and therefore is the only thing they know to exist (747). Somehow one of them gets loose and wanders outside the cave (748). When he gets out, he is astonished at what he finds. He comes back in to tell the others about what he saw. The other men think he is mad and plot to kill him (749). This illustrates how fear, inherent in the primitive nature of man, only serves to promote his ignorance.
In order to understand the moral fabric of the world, it is important to question any information that is given to an individual, instead of blindly accepting the majority opinion and giving it full credibility and validity based on other people’s opinions. Plato’s work, The Republic introduces the allegory of the cave, which is metaphorical scenario that attempts to explain the importance of questioning norms that may seem trivial. Plato illustrates a cave where bounded prisoners have lived all their lives in seclusion, away from the outside world. In their immobile state, they can only look at the wall in front of them which is illuminated by a small fire that has been going on behind them. The wall constantly projects shadows of people passing by outside the cave going about their daily lives. The prisoners have never seen anything else, and they have never experienced the outside world, so they are content in what they have. Plato then, poses a problem of one prisoner escaping, and he analyzes and hypothesises what the initial reaction of the escaped man would be. The first thing the prisoner would experience would be blindness, ironically from the overwhelming exposure to light as he steps out from the cave. Soon, he will begin to realize his ignorance as he sees that the shadows he had seen all his life were actually real people. Plato concludes that his idea of the perfect life inside the cave was ill conceived and that the prisoner would have never been aware of the world outside, had he not escaped. Similarly, The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, follows the life of a man in the utopian town of Seahaven. What the protagonist isn’t aware of however is that his entire life has been broadcasted throughout the world; as a...
The Republic is considered to be one of Plato’s most storied legacies. Plato recorded many different philosophical ideals in his writings. Addressing a wide variety of topics from justice in book one, to knowledge, enlightenment, and the senses as he does in book seven. In his seventh book, when discussing the concept of knowledge, he is virtually addressing the cliché “seeing is believing”, while attempting to validate the roots of our knowledge. By his use of philosophical themes, Plato is able to further his points on enlightenment, knowledge, and education. In this allegory, the depictions of humans as they are chained, their only knowledge of the world is what is seen inside the cave. Plato considers what would happen to people should they embrace the concepts of philosophy, to become enlightened by it, to see things as they truly are. As we have mentioned in class, Plato’s theory did not only present itself in his allegory, but also in the Wachowski brothers’ hit-film, The Matrix. In the film, the protagonist, Neo, suffers from a similar difficulty of adapting to reality, or the truth, which we will see later on. In order to understand Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, one must consider how Plato’s used of symbols to explain what true knowledge (or enlightenment) really is along the comparisons to the Wachowski brothers’ film, The Matrix.
In book seven of ‘The Republic’, Plato presents possibly one of the most prominent metaphors in Western philosophy to date titled ‘Allegory of the Cave’.
Plato's Theory of Forms draws parallels to The Allegory of the Cave, highlighting the concept of human beings being ignorant to true perfection. In the writing Plato uses symbols to convey a veiled meaning. The philosopher says, “The prisoners s...
in Rachels 65). So, we should have no considerations for the people who would be affected by our actions other than our selves. A commonsensical person can see how this could lead to several negative consequences and moral injustice. Take for example, a rapist who seeks sexual pleasure by forcefully acquiring it from his victims or the Joker who causes terror for the pleasure of watching the world burn (The Dark Knight). To the ethical egoist, since these actions are selfishly done for one’s own benefit, they are morally justified. This is irrational due to the idea that what separates us, human beings, from all the animals, or at least the noncomplex species, is that we usually care for our fellow peers in society and that we can reason based on that care. Any rational person would judge these actions as wrong since not giving value to this is almost as leveling humans with the animals of nature. Unlike ethical egoism, utilitarianism does count others in the equation of morality. Instead of acting selfishly, a utilitarian requires us to act “as strictly impartial as a disinterested and benevolent spectator.” (qtd. in Mill, Utilitarianism.). There’s no superiority to one’s selfish desires simply because they are themselves. To the utilitarian,
Plato, a student of Socrates, in his book “The Republic” wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped within a dark cave where they can only catch glimpses of the world above through shadows on the wall.2 Plato is describing how the typical human is. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has very little basis in fact. He describes these people as prisoners, in his allegory, and they are only free when they gain knowledge of the world above the cave.