Patrick Raleigh
Professor Michael Sharkey
Philosophy 1130
3 October 2017
The Allegory of the Cave
An allegory is a story made up to describe a moral. In Plato's Book VII, Socrates creates this allegory to prove a point to Plato's brother, Glaucon. Firstly, it is good to know the story behind The Allegory of the Cave before one can make objections to it, and then when that is understood one can finally take a stand to those objections.
Socrates uses an allegory to give a clear presentation to Glaucon of what he believes is how everyone should live their life. He describes a dark cave underground in which very little light shines through. The people who are in this cave are tied to chairs so they cannot move with their heads facing
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That is where an objection will occur. Everyone's depiction of the sun, or the good, will be different from one another. "Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is" (Plato 89). Socrates argues that when one reaches the light they will see the good in life. From the sound of it, it would seem that this light would be recognized by everyone, although it would be subjective. An extreme example would be Hitler in WWII. He believes that to see the good, one would have to exterminate many innocent people to reach the light. Instead, Socrates believes in education which leads to really understanding what the world and reality is. Socrates also exaggerates the dullness of the cave to prove his point. The cave represents the world around us the way "normal" people see it. Many people would argue that the world is not as dull as he believes. The world has a lot more to offer to people's senses than what he makes it out to be. People are free to think what they want and believe what they want. One could also extrapolate that Socrates is talking about his ideal society. A society that is separated in classes. The lower class that is in the cave and works their entire like blinded by what is going on around them. Then there is the higher class that has an education and has seen the light. "But whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all... and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must nave his eye fixed." (Plato 90). Socrates opinion here is that having the knowledge gives one their idea of good and that gives him the power over others. He believes that the power of knowledge will guide the holder to make
The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, shows the contrast between sense experience and rationalism. The story explains that in the cave where some people have known nothing of the outside world and can only comprehend what they see based on what little they do know of their cave. The people have come to the conclusion what the shapes represent and what causes them and believe it to be correct and thus believe it as the reality of the world. However what they don’t know is that this is not the world and what they will soon find out is that the things they once saw with their eyes what they smelt, what they heard, what they felt were just shadows of real images and objects cast on the wall by fire. What this does is show that sense experience can be at fault because the one perceiving is at times is ignorant of the fact that they know nothing of the true reality of the world and its workings. One must be showed how things are in order to learn and thus no longer be ignorant but have now begun taking steps towards wisdom.
Only one prisoner can understand the truth, but what about outside of the story. In The allegory of the Cave one prisoner is let free and forced up and is allowed to see what real life is like, and it is completely different from what he already knew. When the other prisoner’s see him, the other prisoner’s think he is delusional. This is similar to politicians switching parties or displaying opinions that differ from their party. The Allegory teaches a tremendously strong lesson, regardless of age, it can still be applied to modern day propaganda.
James Baldwin once said “It is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished...that he is set free, that he has set himself free - for higher dreams, for greater privileges.” This quote displays the abundance of courage that is needed to leave everything an individual has in order to move forward. The bravest thing he can do once he has lost his identity, is to surrender who he was and open his mind to the possibility of wo he is going to be.
In the Allegory of The Cave, Plato states that "the prison world is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief". Everything described in the Allegory of The Cave holds a double meaning as a symbol for something else; the prison world symbolizes our world and the fire casting shadows on the walls of the cave is in actuality the sun. Only the sun isn 't just the sun, it is a representation of the good and the truth in this world. When one reaches this level of enlightenment, according to Plato they not only find the truth of their existence, but they also find the good in life, and
The "Allegory of the Cave" represents a complex model on that we tend to are to travel through our lives and understanding. The four stages of thought combined with the progress of human development represent our own path to complete awareness during which the most virtuous and distinguished can reach, and upon doing so shall lead the general public. The story as told by Socrates and Glaucon presents a unique look at the manner during which reality plays such a crucial half in our own existence, and the way one understands it may be used as a qualification for leadership and government.
The "Allegory of the cave "is broken down into four levels. The cave itself representing the tunnel we as humans have dug for ourselves away from the world of learning and knowledge to a world of safe answers where nothing is ever questioned . The cave represents the human's subconscious struggle to be safe and hide from the unknown. Beginning with Level one . The shadow watchers(the mystified )Illusion the figures and shadows reflection on the cave wall.This level is best described as such because the prisoners are not seeing what is real .They are seeing a copy or illusion of what is the real.They are seeing what they want to see.Level two The shadow casters .I believe the shadow casters area people who realize that the world is not as it
Plato’s concept of The Allegory of the Cave is an idea based on his theory of forms. The theory argues that our knowledge of reality/forms is not real knowledge; only our knowledge of these forms can be considered as real knowledge. The Allegory of the Cave was a conversation between Glaucon and Socrates. Socrates was explaining the cave to Glaucon. There’s a group of prisoners who ...
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 Book VII of The Republic, Plato tells a story entitled "The Allegory Of The Cave." He begins the story by describing a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave's entrance. Chained to their chairs from an early age, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in from of them. Their view of reality is soley based upon this limited view of the cave which but is a poor copy of the real world.
In the beginning of the essay, Socrates creates the setting by creating an illusion of a cave, prisoners and the sun. The prisoners are trapped in a cave and are chained head to toe. They have only been able to look at the cave wall their entire lives. There is a fire behind them so that object’s shadows can be seen on the cave wall. Because of this, the prisoners believe that the objects they see on the cave wall are real. One prisoner is dragged out of the cave and is forced to open his eyes in the
American’s education system has been entering crisis mode for a long time. Throughout the past few years, the overwhelming question “Is college needed or worth it?” While it is an opinion, there are facts that back up each answer. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” mentions that the enlightened must help the unenlightened and further their knowledge. The problem with America today is that high school students are given the option of college and that makes for less enlightened people. While it is possible to learn in the work force or Army, college is a better option. Mary Daly wrote the article “Is It Still Worth Going to College?” which talks about the statistical value of attending. Michelle Adam wrote the article “Is College Worth It?” which mentions the struggle young people are going through to even get into college. Caroline Bird wrote the chapter “Where College Fails Us” in her book The Case Against College where she
Whether it’s in the news, TV shows, or movies, it’s happening all the time. It also happens in our everyday personal lives. We get caught in a routine and keeping doing it and it bothers us if that routine is broken or that someone tells us that we should stop doing that daily routine. Plato wants us to look beyond the cave to see what is around us and what is real, not the fake reality that the world sometimes projects. Like Cooper in Interstellar, he stepped outside the “cave” to find a hope for humanity, and at the same time found the tesseract, or the outside of the “cave” again, and found the knowledge he needed to help his daughter figure out the gravity equation and save humanity from dying out. Plato wants us to spread the knowledge of what’s really out there, rather than be prisoners
Throughout Plato 's story "The Allegory of the cave" men are stuck in this cave with their backs turned away from the light, until one day a man turns towards the light and learns for himself what the light is about. The man than explores and begins to educate himself on everything and anything, he then tries to take everything he has learned back down to the cave to get his fellow cave members to step out and learn what the light is all about. The metaphor that Plato 's places in this story is how the cave is represents the human mind and the light represents the understanding of life
In the allegory, a slave is then brought out of the cave, in what Plato refers to as "he ascent of the soul into the intellectual world" (Jacobus 319). Once out of the cave the slave discovers that what he thought was real is not. He learns to comprehend all of these new images as real and true. Since he has been in the dark, both literally and metaphorically, the light blinds him.
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’.