It will begin with an outline of the allegory itself, later linking the work with an analysis of the piece that will include my interpretation of its ultimate representation of the progression of education in man.
In order to establish a base for this paper, I will begin with a brief description of the allegory of the cave as depicted in Book VII of Plato’s Republic, and will link stages of enlightenment illustrated in the Cave to levels of the Line from Book VI. The speaker, Socrates, unfolds a hypothetical scene to an interlocutor in which a number of prisoners are confined in the depths of a cave and are chained in such a manner that they may only see a wall that is directly in front of them. Behind them, screened men carry statues and props representing things of nature so that a flame may cast shadows of those puppets onto the wall visible to the captives. Assuming that the prisoners are so restrained from motion that they can see nothing but the wall and the silhouettes cast onto it, and that they have spent the entirety of their lives in such a position, we can extrapolate that the entire visual world of the prisoners consists of shadows and the scenes acted out by them. Therefore, it is safe to imply that the prisoners live in their own world, where a shadow of a statue is for example a real man. Such a prisoner could be viewed as the equivalent of uneducated man, or someone at the lowest level of the Line who takes a concept and bases their interpretation of it from a completely fabricated source that lacks any reality. In other words, the shadow of the statue of a man is in no way related to the Form Man for it is a visual representation of something that is not Man. The scene continues with a prisoner breaking free of ...
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...o back into the Cave to help others wriggle free from their chains and struggle to get as far out of the Cave as they can. The more educated and enlightened the city is, the stronger it will be and it is the duty of the philosopher to rule inside of the cave and influence others to pursue the highest level of education that they are capable of reaching. Only the philosopher, who himself is driven by the desire for truth, can create the environment that will allow for those same desires to thrive in others; thus making it possible for more philosophers to discover the Form of the Good, and in return become teachers that will help breed a strong democratic state. The purpose of an ideal education, of having philosophers reach the highest level of the Line, is to create virtuous and knowledgable teachers who will push the public, the government, towards righteousness.
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.
The main concept behind Plato’s Allegory of the cave is to show how individuals perceive the world due to factors such as education. Throughout the video, Plato’s main consensus is strictly focused on the changes that an individual experiences after he or she is exposed to the philosophical reasoning behind a situation, rather than mere interpretations. This can be seen in the opening and middle portions of the video. The video starts with all three prisoners being tied up looking in a dark cave, simply seeing shadows and hearing echoes of ongoing events that are happening outside the cave. At this point, all three prisoner are completely naive to to what is happening, and they believe everything that they are told, because they have no reason to doubt the truth behind
“In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” it represents an allegory that signifies real life meaning.Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is about questioning the fundamental reality of experience.The information In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” is interpreted with real life. I would say the genre of the allegory is nonfiction. It focuses on prisoners who are being held captive. They are being held inside of a cave.The prisoners cave freedom, however hopes being at an all time low due to the fact that the prisoners are bound and chained by the neck. The only thing to observe, a wall with shadows coming in from the fire light that blazes before them.The fire that blazed inside the cave would display shadows of other people walking throughout the cave holding
In the allegory of the cave, the people had no resources to progress in life. (Behold! Human beings living in an underground den…” (1). the underground den which was mentioned in the text symbolizes restriction and the chain represents stagnation and one could only be stagnant in life if he or she has no available resources to achieve his or her goals. Those who were in bondage have an inadequate supply of live needed materials, they produce little to nothing because they had no necessary supply, but today we have satisfactory sources of what we need to become great in life in our education system. For instance, we have scholarships of different kinds which myself am a great beneficiary of it. We have financial aid and student loans which lessen the burden of tuitions off our shoulders. We have other resources like great teachers who are willing to pass their knowledge onto us. We have mentors who derive joy in mentoring us. Our present educational system is at its best only because the necessary resources needed are
The irrational concept of the education has been influenced moral principles concerning what is good for a society as well as for an individual; however, the understanding of the intrinsic nature of the education removes the darkness of beliefs, which Plato calls prisoners’ shadows in his writing The Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates. Although “The Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” was written thousands of years ago, Plato’s depiction of the true education is a wakeup call for our humanity to admit the acquisition of knowledge with circumspection. The truth often relies on a mistaking understanding of sight or shadow according to Plato; the truth regularly relies on prejudice which makes an individual a prisoner, and the discovery of new truth often encounters hostility. A close analysis of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave allows us to view the education as not a way to transfer knowledge, but a way to transform
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.
In the translation of the dialogue from the Allegory of the Cave, readers are introduced to ideas that help them discover information about the process of enlightenment. After readers’ read the Allegory of the Cave, the readers understand Plato’s philosophical assumptions. From the dialogue, Plato confirms the idea that humans establish their own understanding of the world based on their principle senses. Plato catalogs a significant perception of how humans are able to process new ideas of enlightenment or education.
In the essay “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato addresses how humans generally do not pursue knowledge. Most humans are satisfied with what they already know and do not want to expand their knowledge. Plato uses simple examples to help the reader understand his logic on why humans do not expand their knowledge.
The "Allegory" depicts a number of people who are imprisoned in a cave, chained by the legs and neck so that they cannot move, nor can they turn their heads; they see only towards the back wall opposite the cave opening. These people have been chained in this manner their entire lives. Sometimes objects and people pass in front of the cave opening, and shadows play upon the back wall. Since the people have only seen the shadows, they assume that the shadows are the real objects and beings of the world. They watch the shadows, measuring them, trying to understand them, and soon honors are bestowed upon those persons who can see the...
As people, we tend to believe everything we see. Do we ever take the time to stop and think about what is around us? Is it reality, or are we being deceived? Reality is not necessarily what is in front of us, or what is presented to us. The environment that we are placed or brought up has a great impact on what we perceive to be the truth or perceive to be reality. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most significant attempts to explain the nature of reality. The cave represents the prisoners, also known as the people. They are trapped inside of a cave. They are presented with shadows of figures, and they perceive that to be reality. The cave can be used as a
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" presents a vision of humans as slaves chained in front of a fire observing the shadows of things on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows are the only "reality" the slaves know. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our limited perceptions as reality, truth and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics.
The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when someone is educated to the level of philosopher. He contends that they must "go back into the cave" or return to the everyday world of politics, greed and power struggles. The Allegory also attacks people who rely upon or are slaves to their senses. The chains that bind the prisoners are the senses. The fun of the allegory is to try to put all the details of the cave into your interpretation. In other words, what are the models the guards carry? the fire? the struggle out of the cave? the sunlight? the shadows on the cave wall? Socrates, in Book VII of The Republic, just after the allegory told us that the cave was our world and the fire was our sun. He said the path of the prisoner was our soul's ascent to knowledge or enlightenment. He equated our world of sight with the intellect's world of opinion. Both were at the bottom of the ladder of knowledge. Our world of sight allows us to "see" things that are not real, such as parallel lines and perfect circles. He calls this higher understanding the world "abstract Reality" or the Intelligeble world. He equates this abstract reality with the knowledge that comes from reasoning and finally understanding. On the physical side, our world of sight, the stages of growth are first recognition of images (the shadows on the cave wall) then the recognition of objects (the models the guards carry) To understand abstract reality requires the understanding of mathematics and finally the forms or the Ideals of all things (the world outside the cave). But our understanding of the physical world is mirrored in our minds by our ways of thinking. First comes imagination (Socrates thought little of creativity), then our unfounded but real beliefs. Opinion gives way to knowledge through reasoning (learned though mathematics). Finally, the realization of the forms is mirrored by the level of Understanding in the Ways of Thinking. The key to the struggle for knowledge is the reasoning skills acquired through mathematics as they are applied to understanding ourselves. The shadows on the cave wall change continually and are of little worth, but the reality out side the cave never changes and that makes it important.
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’.
Ultimately, “…it is delightful to realize that through education human nature will be continually improved, and brought to such a condition as is worthy of the nature of man. This opens out to us the prospect of a happier human race in the future” (Kant, Theory of Education). These children are to be educated as ends in themselves, and their dignity should be respected. (1)
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.