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Analysis plato allegory of the cave essay
Analysis plato allegory of the cave essay
Summary of plato allegory of the cave
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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is another reading that touches on the philosophical views of life. In this story, there are three prisoners that are chained up against a wall. They have been stuck there for their entire lives and have only been able to look at the cave wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners, there is a fire and there is a walkway between the fire and the prisoners. People outside of the cave walk along this walkway while carrying things, such as, their animals. The people on the walkway create shadows on the wall that the prisoners are looking at. Because the shadows are all the prisoners have ever seen, they believe the shadows that they see of different objects are actually real. Later, one prisoner escapes from the cave
In his famous “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes the journey to knowledge and truth, explaining how we come to know reality and why it is that some people are unable to attain true knowledge. In this essay I will be unfolding Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and explaining the prisoner’s journey from darkness (ignorance) to enlightenment (truth), explaining the philosophical view on reality versus belief and the process someone undergoes to achieve enlightenment.
What is reality? An enduring question, philosophers have struggled to identify its definition and basic concept since the beginning of time. Plato, in his provocative essay, The Cave, used symbols and images to ridicule and explain how humanity easily justifies their current reality while showing us that true wisdom and enlightenment lies outside this fabricated version of reality. If he were alive in modern times, he would find society unchanged; still uneducated and silently trapped in our own hallucination of reality with only the glimmer of educational paths available. While this may be a bleak comparison, it is an accurate one as the media influences of today present a contrasting picture of education and ignorance that keeps us trapped
In the story Allegory of the Cave written by Plato, it looks into human perception, showing that what we see isn’t always the truth. In the story it begins by describing the lives of three men living inside a cave. In this cave they are chained, with their backs toward the entrance of the cave unable to see anything behind them. The three men have been living in this cave their entire lives, only being able to see shadows of any objects that pass by. The shadows, have became a game to the three men, each guessing what shadow would appear next. The three men had no idea what they were seeing was only shadows of actual objects; the shadows were all they knew, so to them the shadows were what was real. One of the three men, after years of living this way, was finally able to break free from his chains. After freeing himself from the chains, he then ventured away from the cave. After stepping out, the sun quickly burned his eyes as he walked outside.”Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally he can look upon the sun itself. “ only after he can look straight at the sun "is he able to reason about it" and what it is.. The Republic Book VII. Penguin Group Inc. pp. 365–401. After
Plato’s cave had chained prisoners and that was the only life they ever knew. They couldn’t move their heads, and the only objects they could see from the outside world were the casted shadows created by the fire. They saw the truth from the shadows, but they were distorted. What they were seeing was only one side of the truth, not the whole thing. When one of the prisoners was free to go, he was forced to be dragged out of the cave. It
Plato's Allegory of a Cave is a story about prisoners that are chained underground, who can not see anything except for shadows caste on a wall by a fire. The only thing that these prisoners can see is the shadows of people. Eventually, one of the prisoners breaks free of the chain and ventures out into the real world. In the real world the freed prisoner discovers that the shadows in the cave are created from light diverge off people. He recognizes there is a whole new world filled with light. The freed prisoner is very confused and blinded by the light so he decides to return to the cave. When the prisoner returns to the cave, he shares what he saw in the real world with the other prisoners. The remaining prisoners treat the freed prisoner like he is crazy and they tell the freed prisoner that the real world does not exist. The prisoners in the cave do not believe in the real world because the cave is all that they know exists.
In the Allegory of the Cave from Plato’s Republic, Socrates claims that in order to teach reality to individuals, without failure, they have to show them the reality.
The darkness of the cave represents the constraints of society, while the prisoners are meant to be the members of that society. The shadows symbolizes the ideals and morals within the community. The light outside of the cave can be interpreted as enlightenment and freedom from ignorance. When describing what a prisoner will experience when he exits the cave, Plato writes, “...look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him… his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision.” This sentence describes the gradual process of absorbing a new reality. When a person’s entire perspective is being changed, it will be very difficult to take it all in at once. With time, everything becomes clearer, exactly like the change from darkness to brightness. Glaucon himself can be viewed as a symbol of mindless sheep within society. He simply agrees with everything that Socrates says, offering nothing more than agreements to his questions. Glaucon gives no rebuttals or thoughts of his own, only going along with whatever Socrates is saying. However, Glaucon can also be interpreted as simply absorbing everything Socrates is telling him, like master and
In Plato’s story “Allegory Of the Cave” there are a group of prisoners that have been chained in a dark cave their whole life not being able to turn back at all. The only contact they have with the outside world is seeing the shadows of the things that pass behind them. Then one prisoner becomes free and is able to explore the outside world. When the freed prisoner steps outside for the first time in his life the beaming sun blinds him but then gets used to the sun and is amazed by everything not being just a shadow. The freed prisoner tried to go back with the other prisoners and elaborate the outside world but was not used to the dark and had a hard time explaining to him. The other prisoners thought
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, presented in The Republic, is one of the most famous extended metaphors in the history of philosophy. In the scenario, which Plato attributes to Socrates, a group of people are chained to a cave wall. They have been in this position all their lives and they can only see in one direction, toward the back of the cave. On the wall they see shadowy images being reflected in front of them. Since these people cannot turn their heads to see what makes the shadows, the chained people assume the shadows are all there is to reality. When one of the prisoners is released, he must be forced to turn around. The prisoner sees the shadows being projected on the wall are, in fact, created by an enormous fire at the mouth of the
In Plato’s cave, he illustrates how we see with our eyes. The people in the cave were shackled and could only see shadows ahead them. “You think the prisoners would imagine that the speaker were anyone other than the shadows passing in front of them.” “See anything besides the shadows that are [continually] projected on the wall opposite them by the glow of the fire”. In life today, the way the people in the cave saw with their eyes, seeing patterns in the shadows, we see just like them because see the same thing everyday when we head to work or school.
Often times people inquiry us, “Why we're here?” I’m present in this world because I was destined to be here. I attend to this school because it was my decision to come here. I made it to my freshman year of college because I performed well in high school, studied, imposed all my work and dedicated my time to get a better future. When I came to the United States, English was not my forte. However, I did not want to let this obstacle to hold me down. I was determined to prove to my family that I can become someone to be proud of .
Plato's Allegory of the Cave, presents Socrates instructing one of his students to imagine that there was a cave that was totally dark, except from the light that comes from the entrance and from a fire. The student was instructed then to imagine that the inhabitants of the cave have their necks and legs chained to the wall, impossible for the inhabitants to move. The people who control the cave place objects in front of the fire so that the inhabitants of the cave only see the shadows of the objects that the people want them to see. The chained inhabitants never get to see the real objects, only the distorted images of the objects. Furthermore, the inhabitants of the cave perceive the distorted objects as real, not the actual objects as being real. Socrates, then tells the student to imagine if the inhabitants of the cave were suddenly freed of the chains. The inhabitants would be in agonizing pain, for the first time in their lives the individuals can stand and move their heads. Their bodies are not used to being in such positions. The inhabitants of the cave, now are able to behold the light glimmering outside the cave. The inhabitants who were only adapted to only darkness, perceive light. The light stabs at their eyes, it is too painful for these individ...
The definition of an allegory is a narrative or description that uses symbols to convey an implicit meaning. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the cave represents humans and how they are so accustomed to their environment and cannot see the world for what it really is. People refuse to believe that there is another part of the world they are missing out on because of the attachment to their current environment. In the allegory, one of the prisoners escapes and see’s the world for what it really is, and comes back to tell the others what he has seen, but they don’t believe him and refuse to accept the idea of a world different than theirs. This is comparable to how humans become so dependent on their current situation and what they have already
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.
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.