Form In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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mathematical relations, and virtues. Form existed before perception of man or animal. (9) Plato’s theory of forms allows for a difference between knowledge and opinion and the possibility of right and wrong. Becoming, or change, can be either growth or death, thus Plato warns about opinions. Writing as his respected influencer Socrates in “Republic “he says, “Haven’t you noticed that opinion without knowledge is blind… isn’t anyone with a true but unthinking opinion like a blind man on a right road.” (10) Opinions derived from emotions are inferior to knowledge. Plato believed that the reality of an object could not be gained through the senses, where only opinions could be formed. Realty exists in two realms, the subjective realm or spiritual …show more content…

He uses several metaphors to illustrate his points on the Forms. The sun, or light in the allegory represents enlightenment, illumination of knowledge, a Form of the Good. This Form is needed for understanding. The shadows represent appearances and are only what opinions are formed around and they are not truth. I believe that the Cave represents the place of ignorance that so many occupy before they are introduced to knowledge. In Plato’s Allegory, he presents us with the following scenario; prisoners, restrained inside a cave throughout their lives, where all they have ever been able to see are the shadows on a wall of statues of a variety of shapes, animals, plants, etc, carried by people who speak, causing the prisoners to believe that that is what those objects must sound like. This is the world to them, this their only reality. One of the prisoners is freed from restraint, allowing him to see the truth. He is led outside to see the sun, and though This causes him pain, he learns that all he has known before was only an illusion. What he sees now is truth, “the ascent of the soul into the world of Forms”. (Republic, Plato) The prisoner is compelled to return to his fellow prisoners in the Cave to tell them how he has been enlightened, however he is rejected. Plato demonstrates that the cost of enlightenment is rejection by those who have not seen, who refuse

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