Analysis of Plato's Allegory of the Cave

983 Words2 Pages

Analysis of Plato's Allegory of the Cave

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 flaw that Plato speaks about is trusting as real, what one sees - believing absolutely that what one sees is true. In The Allegory of the Cave, the slaves in the caves know that the shadows, thrown on the wall by the fire behind them, are real. If they were to talk to the shadows echoes would make the shadows appear to talk back. To the slaves "the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images." (Jacobus 316).

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.

Representing knowledge, the light is too brilliant for him to see and comprhend. He must be re-educated. "First he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of the men and other objects? then the objects themselves" (Jacobus 317). He learns that the reflections are truer than shadows and the objects truer than reflections. He must deal with a new reality that does not exist within the cave.

Plato says that these people who a...

... middle of paper ...

...ary friend when we are younger. Our imaginary friend is very real to us, but as we get older or make the ascent to the world of knowledge, we reject our imaginary friends. We are faced with a different reality where we start to believe that what our eyes show us is the only truth. We forget to question things and don't realize that maybe there is yet another ascent, out of this bigger "cave" of the light.

Human beings' knowledge of goodness, reality, and truth will always be limited by our fear of new ideas and new perspectives. As long as we are afraid of questioning, we will be willing to "put to death" anyone who ascends and returns to the cave with the truth.

Work Cited

Corinthians II, The New Jerusalem Bible. Henry Wansbrough, gen. ed. New York:

Doubleday, 2005.

Jacobus, Lee A. A World of Ideas. 7th Edition Boston: Bedford/St. Martins. 2006.

Show More
Related

  • Plato's 'Allegory Of The Cave'

    884 Words  | 2 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • Similarities Between The Allegory Of The Cave And The Great Gatsby

    790 Words  | 2 Pages

    The allegory tells of a person who is put into a cave at infancy and knows nothing except for the shadows that the bypassers project onto the wall. The person is blind to the knowledge of what is out “there” much like Jay Gatsby in The Great Gatsby. Jay is stuck in a romantic fantasy, which he devotes his life to. He often refers to a light he stares at across the bay. This light symbolizes the step that Jay needs to overcome in order to escape from his darkness and enter into the “light” of knowledge and understanding of his fantasy. If one, such as Jay, dwells in the presence of knowledge but refuses to gain it, then no good may be done.

    Read More

  • Exploring Truth: Insights from Plato and Freire

    1469 Words  | 3 Pages

    He further points out there is a process, an eye adjustment that needs to take place in order for him to truly see the truth. First feeling disoriented, then pain from the light, then he can see. But Plato implies that once one takes the journey, they are instantly convinced of the truth and have attained absolute truth. I would argue that not everyone 's climb to understanding lead them to the absolute truth. They may have received a clearer view or added another view to their beliefs or replaced it with old ones because they seem better. Good is enemy of the

    Read More

  • Plato and Bacon

    921 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a story being told by Socrates to Plato’s brother, Glaucon. Socrates tells of prisoners in an underground cave who are made to look upon the front wall of the cave. To the rear of the prisoners, below the protection of the parapet, lie the puppeteers whom are casting the shadows on the wall in that the prisoners are perceiving reality. Once a prisoner is free, he's forced to look upon the fire and objects that once determined his perception of reality, and he so realizes these new pictures before of him are now the accepted forms of reality. Plato describes the vision of the real truth to be "aching" to the eyes of the prisoners, and the way they might naturally be inclined to going back and viewing what they need perpetually seen as a pleasing and painless acceptance of truth. This stage of thinking is noted as "belief."

    Read More

  • Summary Of The Republic Of Plato And The Matrix

    1317 Words  | 3 Pages

    Though it takes time, the prisoner is able to adjust; Stephen Buckle writes, “Speak of ‘mental gaze’: an expression which evokes precisely the metaphor of a mental vision – of knowing as seeing with ‘the mind’s eye’ – that is a cornerstone of Plato’s allegory of the sun” (Buckle 313). Along with the “Allegory of the Cave,” comes the “Allegory of Light,” which serves its purpose of emphasizing Plato’s views, “The sun reaches its greatest development as a symbol in Plato,” (James A. Notopoulos 223). The light, moreover, serves as a means of finding reality, something the prisoner strives to do and teach his fellow prisoners about (finding the light). Additionally, the abstract understanding of both fire and light can be linked to Plato’s ideas of enlightenment. Plato writes, “Then, the release from the bonds and the turning around from the shadows to the phantoms and the light, the way up from the cave to the sun; and, once there, the persisting inability to look at the animals and the plants and the sun’s light, and looking instead at the divine appearances in water and at the shows of the things that are…” (Bloom 211). Furthermore, the concept of the sun serves an important element in the “Allegory of the Cave,” as it resembles a higher source, or as Plato would say, a pure form. Notopoulos writes, “He therefore found in the sun of Greek tradition a highly developed

    Read More

  • Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    1521 Words  | 4 Pages

    Freedom in mind, freedom in nature, and freedom in subjectivity of individual are three kinds of freedoms. However, freedom should be expressed within the limits of reason and morality. Having freedom equals having the power to think, to speak, and to act without externally imposed restrains. As a matter of fact, finding freedom in order to live free is the common idea in Plato with "The Allegory of the Cave"; Henry David Thoreau with " Where I lived and What I lived for"; and Jean Paul Sartre with " Existentialism". Generally, Plato, Thoreau, and Sartre suggested that human life should be free. They differ in what that freedom is. Plato thinks it is found in the world of intellect, Thoreau thinks freedom is found in nature, and Sartre thinks freedom is found in subjectivity of individual.

    Read More

  • Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix

    2260 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...rison to the allegory, one can best grasp the concept of knowledge and how the Sun and our senses guide our education. The concept of our knowledge being a result of our surroundings in the world, rather than a text book, is simply fascinating. How would those who questioned our Earth being round rather than the earlier beliefs of it being flat without believing that there is more than what is seen. The Wright brothers were considered heretics because they had believed man could fly. It was by asking questions that they could not have known to be true, that promotes progress and development in the world. To be able to ask questions in a Socratic fashion, to question what one does not know, is learning. Plato was truly a man well before his time, as he was able to ask the questions that were deemed most difficult in an age where religion dominated knowledge.

    Read More

  • Exploring Change in The Allegory of the Cave, and The Myth of Sisyphus

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    653 Words  | 2 Pages

    Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. The Allegory of the Cave is that we are chained to a wall. Behind us is another wall with figures walking across it, behind that wall is a pit of fire. The firelight casts shadows upon the wall in front of those chained to the wall. Because we are chained to the wall we believe the figures are what they represent. Plato says there times when one tries to break away from the wall but others encourage him to join back the wall as he experiences what the world truly is. Because we are chained to the wall we are afraid of the unknown. But breaking free could change the perception about the world and feel truly free. Plato also argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. However, it is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles but it’s difficult. And when we ( s...

    Read More

  • Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And Harrison Bergeron

    642 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato described a group of people that have lived their lives confined to a cave, tied to a pole making them face a wall. On this wall you could only see shadows of what was going on behind you, and from that they misperceived shadows from reality. One day, one of the inhabitants broke free and was able to leave the cave, only to be shocked by what “true reality” was outside of the cave and what was different from the shadows he saw on the cave wall. He was so excited that he wanted to go back into the cave and basically enlightened the other prisoners about what he saw,

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Plato's Cave Allegory

    1035 Words  | 3 Pages

    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

    Read More

  • The Allegory Of The Cave And The Apology By Plato

    1292 Words  | 3 Pages

    In "The Allegory of the Cave," prisoners in a cave are forced to watch shadows as people behind them are forced to accept these shadows as reality -- "To them... the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. One prisoner, however, is released, and stumbles into the real world, containing more depth and complexity than they had ever known. At first, the prisoner will be pained at the bright, piercing light, but will eventually recover. According to Plato, the freed prisoner is then obligated to return to the shadows of the cave, to inform the shackled prisoners left behind of the real world. The prisoners, however, will not believe the freed prisoner, and may even go as afra s to kill him for such "lies" contrary to their "reality." The pursuit of the truth is, therefor, a painstaking but rewarding process. According to Plato, the physical world is a world of sight, one that lacks meaning if left alone. Only those who manage to break into the sunlight from the cave will ascend to the intellectual world. The prisoners in the shadows only know of the dull physical world, while those who ascend into the sunlight learn of the spiritual world, and are exposed to the first hints of truth. The soul ascends upward into the realm of goodness and of the truth, where "... souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell.." The pursuit of goodness and of the truth, then, improves the soul, as the soul desires to be elevated to a higher state of knowledge and morality. Caring for the self and the soul involves freeing the shackles of the physical world and ascending to the "... world of knowledge... the universal author of all things beautiful and right... and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual..." The soul yearns to dwell in a world of morality and knowledge, and only the pursuit of

    Read More

  • Exploring Human Perception: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

    1395 Words  | 3 Pages

    In Plato’s allegory, the light is a metaphor for truth and knowledge, as the prisoner is finally learning what the world really consists of and the true nature of life. Education gives us a sense of purpose and helps us with things like communication, knowledge, history, and math, guiding us towards a meaningful and knowledgeable life. Plato once said “we can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light.” He is saying that people who are still afraid of learning different things and acquiring knowledge after they grow up, are the real tragedy. The ‘light’ is what motivates us to learn and become educated about different environment’s and realizing out true potential. If education was the cave, we would only be learning one thing in the same environment, with no opportunity to learn other things, just like the prisoners who only see shadows their whole lives. One of the best things about education is the variety of different courses we can choose to take, and learn about more than one area of interest. Education does not trap or keep us isolated, it helps us learn about all kinds of different things and encourages us to ask questions and learn about different places and

    Read More

  • Plato's Cave

    1131 Words  | 3 Pages

    The basic premise of Plato's allegory of the cave is to depict the nature of the human being, where true reality is hidden, false images and information are perceived as reality. In the allegory Plato tells a story about a man put on a Gnostics path. Prisoners seating in a cave with their legs and necks chained down since childhood, in such way that they cannot move or see each other, only look into the shadows on the wall in front of them; not realizing they have three-dimensional bodies. These images are of men and animals, carried by an unseen men on the background. Now imagine one of the prisoners is liberated into the light, the Gnostic path will become painful and difficult, but slowly his eyes will begin to accommodate what he sees and his fundamentalist view about the world will begin to change; he sees everything through an anarchic thinking and reasons. When he returns into the cave, his fellow prisoners will not recognize him or understand anything he says because he has develop a new senses and capability of perception. This is the representation of the human nature, we live in a cave with false perception of reality that we've been told since childhood, but we must realize that these present perception are incomplete.

    Read More

  • Allegory Of The Cave Essay

    775 Words  | 2 Pages

    In "Allegory of the Cave" Plato's describes the journey, which individuals must embark on in order to achieve enlightenment. Plato depicts a comprehensive metaphor that aims to outline the disadvantages we face as a result of a lack of education. When analyzing the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ it's imperative to remember that there are two elements to the story. The first element is the fictional metaphor of the prisoners and the second element is the philosophical view in which the story is supposed to portray, therefore presenting us with the allegory itself.

    Read More

More about Analysis of Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Open Document