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Analyze “The Allegory of the Cave”
Analyze “The Allegory of the Cave”
An analysis on the allegory of the cave
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“Beware of false knowledge; it is more dangerous than ignorance” –George Bernard Shaw. The bodies politic in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and the Bible, the Commonwealth and Israelites, both have shallow beliefs and believe what they know to be true. The Platonic Prisoner, from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, and Moses, from the Book of Exodus in the Bible, both attempt to influence others with their newfound knowledge and wisdom because they feel the obligation to do so.They end up with different overall responses from their body politic as their relationships undergo change. For relationships to function, the bodies politic need to trust each other as well as courage. Relationship also need perseverance to last. Before relationships begin to develop, each of the protagonists are in different positions. Moses is born a Hebrew, but growing up he is considered an Egyptian. When Moses flees to Midian and saves the …show more content…
However, they deny the protagonists because they are insecure, afraid of the unknown and are too ignorant to understand. For Moses, he is able to watch over the Israelites and become a parental figure for them. Meanwhile, for the Platonic Prisoner, the Commonwealth attempts to kill him and rid of his unpalatable truth. In the beginning, the Israelites and Commonwealth are rejecting and denying the truth. By the end of both stories, the Israelites are accepting towards Moses and his sayings from God. As for the Commonwealth, they are still unwilling to listen and want to continue their trail of denial. Relationships are like a two-way street and they must be built on trust. Though, to start a relationship, it takes courage. Courage is what will give the will of people to even think about starting a relationship. Perseverance is needed to ensure that the relationship will get through rough times, even though it might be
In society it is a person’s duty to teach others what they do not know. People do not need to tell others of their knowledge, but in order for society to function together people must all be taught the basics of reality. In the parable “Allegory of the Cave” the author and philosopher, Plato, uses hypothetical situation, rhetorical questions, and diction to tell his audience that a person’s reality depends on the environment they are raised in, and how it is the responsibility of the ones knowledgeable to teach others so society can thrive with most of the same beliefs.
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
Plato was a distinguished man known for its highly intellectual theory concerning human’s perception. This particular reading emphasizes the point that what we recognize as real from birth is completely misleading based on our tainted understanding of reality, and that what we see and hear don’t necessarily ensure the truth and the actual knowledge. Even though Plato’s “Allegory of Cave” was written a long time ago, we can still relate it with the society today. For instance, we, the people, are the prisoners, and the shadow, is none other than the television and media, whose role has made such a huge impact in how we perceive things in life. The modern day television relates to the thought provoking, excellent, and captivating theory of Plato in its controlled audience, the misleading reality, and the enslaved addiction.
“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
Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’ rotates around the notion of our vision as humans being limited, and only being exposed to a certain extent of knowledge within our surroundings. The Allegory of the Cave presented a rare case where prisoners were trapped in a cave for all their lives with hands, neck and feet bound to look at a wall with shadows beings casted by a fire that lies behind them. Once a prisoner breaks free of the binds, his curiosity allows him to follow the light that then exposes him to the real world where he is blinded by the sun. Each of the elements in the allegory are symbols that can be related to modern day situations as metaphors. Though society has evolved drastically, many struggles that we face today resemble the allegory.
The allegory of the cave is one of Plato’s many theories, probably one of his most known theories as well. This theory is based on the human perception. Plato would say that the knowledge gained through the senses is no more than your opinion but in order to have actual knowledge you have to obtain it through philosophical reasoning. In his theory, he separates people who think that their sensory knowledge it the truth and people who really see the truth.
A good example of Plato’s divided line is represented in the Cave Allegory, which is one of the core messages of his philosophical works. Plato used a line as an illusion to divide human knowledge into four levels, which differ in degree and clarity. Taking a line and dividing the line into two sections not equal in length; the upper level equates to knowledge, this is the realm of intellect. On the lower section of the line equates to opinion and is the world of sensory knowledge. Then cut these lines into two sections, this produces four line segments. This visual gives us four cognitive states of thinking. These states of thinking are as follows: Noesis, Dianoia, Pistis, and Eikasia.
The Plato’s Allegory of the Cave written by Plato is a dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and Plato’s mentor Socrates. In the story, Plato presents a prisoner chained to the ground within a cave, and is facing a wall with animated puppets, which are the shadows cast by a light source from behind. The prisoner knows that other people are in the cave as well. For the prisoner, this is the reality of the world. Then one day, people come to the cave, and the prisoner is taking out from the cave with his chains removed. When the prisoner returns to the cave to inform the other prisoners of his discovery of the real world, the other prisoners do not believe him and decide to kill him if he tries to set them
What is truly real, and what is not? This question is one which has been pondered deeply throughout human history, and it seemingly has no definitive answer. To understand what is truly a part of reality, and what isn’t, may be an impossible feat. However, two famous works created by humans from two distant time periods attempt to dissect and analyze this philosophical question. The first, The Allegory of the Cave, was written by the great Greek philosopher, Plato, who was born in 428 B.C. in Athens, Greece. The Allegory of the Cave is a piece of a larger work of Plato’s, The Republic, which is a collection of works concerning political philosophy. The Republic is his most famous work and what he is best known for in today’s world. The second
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.
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.
Through my study of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Saint Augustine’s “The Confessions”, I discovered that both text involve a journey of finding real truths before acquiring a faith. This suggests that faith and reason are compatible because one must embark on journey in which they are educated about real truths before they are able to acquire a faith.
In Plato’s Allegory of The Cave Socrates explains that humans tend to not understand the true reality of their world. They believe that they understand what they are perceiving and sensing in the world, but in reality, they are just seeing the shadows of the true forms that make up the world. Socrates utilizes anecdotes to explain his theory on forms. The inclusion of a story to back up his theory helps the audience understand his points better, and generate more followers to his thinking. Additionally, Socrates uses examples of how his philosophies relate to our everyday life in order to provide more evidence to the reader. Although a counter claim isn’t explicitly stated in the Allegory, the reader could argue that for Plato’s program to
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 Plato’s Allegory of The Cave, prisoners are kept since child birth in a dark cave, they are only able to see nothing but shadow figures move on the wall of the cave. They perceive that as their true reality since that is all they have known all their life. A prisoner breaks free from his shackles and is blinded by the light of the sun. He realized that his reality in the cave was not real, he sees people and understands what reality is now. The prisoner goes back to explain to the others what he has seen but they don’t believe him because they believed in their own reality.