Cindy Cendana
Professor John Lynch
English 1A
21 February 2014
Discoveries and The Mind
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.
The first similarity between the cave theory and television is the fact that the audience is being controlled. In the essay, Plato describes the prisoners’ condition by stating how they “have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads”(868), and how the prisoners are being controlled by the puppeteers that are “passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall”(868). These descriptions offer us the vivid perception that the prisoners are being highly restrained by the puppeteers, both physically and intellectually; they couldn’t move, and they thought that the shadow was the reality. Just like the prisoners, w...
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...tates how the things that we don’t know won’t ever hurt us. It is true that we are slave-mentally addicted to being ignorant by believing in the conspiracy that the television shows.
In conclusion, it is unambiguous that Plato’s Allegory of The Cave is related to modern-day television even though it was written in a period where there were no such thing as television and media. Plato succeeds in illustrating how all of us are bound to trusting the conspiracy that the media shows. He demonstrates a great example on how the government is controlling our viewpoints on reality through the use of television. He portrays a concrete illustration on how oblivious television’s audiences are towards the real truth. For all of these, it is indisputable that this particular writing of Plato is very similar to how people develop their perceptions of reality through television.
Not only educational shows accomplish these goals, but fictional television programs can often incorporate information that requires viewers to grapple with a topic using logical reasoning and a global consciousness. In addition, not to diminish the importance of reading, television reaches those who may never pick up a book or who might struggle with reading problems, enabling a broader spectrum of people to interact with cognitive topics. Veith has committed the error of making generalizations about two forms of media when, in truth, the situation varies depending on quality and content. However, what follows these statements is not just fallacious, but
The Allegory of the Cave has many parallels with The Truman Show. Initially, Truman is trapped in his own “cave”; a film set or fictional island known as Seahaven. Truman’s journey or ascension into the real world and into knowledge is similar to that of Plato’s cave dweller. In this paper, I will discuss these similarities along with the very intent of both of these works whose purpose is for us to question our own reality.
In order to understand the moral fabric of the world, it is important to question any information that is given to an individual, instead of blindly accepting the majority opinion and giving it full credibility and validity based on other people’s opinions. Plato’s work, The Republic introduces the allegory of the cave, which is metaphorical scenario that attempts to explain the importance of questioning norms that may seem trivial. Plato illustrates a cave where bounded prisoners have lived all their lives in seclusion, away from the outside world. In their immobile state, they can only look at the wall in front of them which is illuminated by a small fire that has been going on behind them. The wall constantly projects shadows of people passing by outside the cave going about their daily lives. The prisoners have never seen anything else, and they have never experienced the outside world, so they are content in what they have. Plato then, poses a problem of one prisoner escaping, and he analyzes and hypothesises what the initial reaction of the escaped man would be. The first thing the prisoner would experience would be blindness, ironically from the overwhelming exposure to light as he steps out from the cave. Soon, he will begin to realize his ignorance as he sees that the shadows he had seen all his life were actually real people. Plato concludes that his idea of the perfect life inside the cave was ill conceived and that the prisoner would have never been aware of the world outside, had he not escaped. Similarly, The Truman Show, directed by Peter Weir, follows the life of a man in the utopian town of Seahaven. What the protagonist isn’t aware of however is that his entire life has been broadcasted throughout the world; as a...
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.
Imagine a group of people, prisoners, who had been chained to stare at a wall in a cave for all of their lives. Facing that wall, these prisoners can pass the time by merely watching the shadows casted from a fire they could not see behind them dance on the walls. These shadows became the closest to what view of reality the prisoners have. But what happens after one of these prisoners is unbound from his chains to inspect beyond the wall of shadows, to the fire and outside the cave? How would seeing the world outside of the walls of the cave affect his views of the shadows and reality? It is this theme with its questions that make up Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. It is in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave that there are several key ideas presented in the allegory. The ideas presented in the allegory can be related back to themes of education and the gaining of knowledge and in ways that can relate back to “us”, the people.
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.
Strictly entertainment in its finest sense, Plato would be appalled to find the number of ‘reality’ TV shows that draw millions of viewers and experience almost cult-like followings. Watching a show that depicts a glamorous lifestyle with little or no regard for rules is identical to those prisoners who were chained to observe the shadows upon the wall believing them to be real. Even the name, ‘reality’ television, is indistinguishable from the shadows viewed by the cave dwellers. “Then in every way such prisoners would deem reality to be nothing else than the shadows of the artificial objects.” (paragraph 13)
The Allegory of the Cave has many applications to both Plato’s writing and life in general. It describes the education of a philosopher, as well as how others look on the philosopher after he has gained the knowledge of the Forms. It also describes what it is like to see the forms. After understanding the forms, what once were objects, real things, become merely shadows. One sees everything as it truly exists, as it’s form.
In Book VII of The Republic, Plato tells a story entitled "The Allegory Of The Cave." He begins the story by describing a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave's entrance. Chained to their chairs from an early age, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in from of them. Their view of reality is soley based upon this limited view of the cave which but is a poor copy of the real world.
Presently 98% of the households in the United States have one or more televisions in them. What once was regarded as a luxury item has become a staple appliance of the American household. Gone are the days of the three channel black and white programming of the early years; that has been replaced by digital flat screen televisions connected to satellite programming capable of receiving thousands of channels from around the world. Although televisions and television programming today differ from those of the telescreens in Orwell’s 1984, we are beginning to realize that the effects of television viewing may be the same as those of the telescreens.
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 is a metaphysical illustration of the philosopher’s view of the humanity. We are represented by the prisoners, who are mired and held captive by an extremely limited view of the world, and prevented by their chains from viewing the actual Truth of existence. We are each locked up in our own worldview, living our lives unknowingly in the shadow of actual truth. Having nothing else to rely upon but our meager eyesight and hearing, capable of only believing in shadows and whispering disembodied voices, once exposed to truth, it is blinding to us. We are dazzled and disoriented, afraid of the glaring sight that has been so rudely forced upon us.
To begin, Plato’s Allegory of the cave is a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon and its main purpose, as Plato states is to, “show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened.”(Plato) The dialogue includes a group of prisoners who are captive in a cave and chained down, only with the ability to stare straight at a wall. This wall, with the help of a fire, walkway, and people carrying different artifacts and making sounds, create a shadow and false perception of what is real. This concept here is one of the fundamental issues that Plato brings up in the reading. “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.” (Plato). These prisoners, being stuck in this cave their entire life have no other option but to believe what they see on the wall to be true. If they were to experience a real representation of the outside world they would find it implausible and hard to understand. “When any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up a...
The passage from Plato’s myth of the cave, “For the prisoners, reality would consist of nothing but the shadows,” emphasize the nature of how people can perceive the world. Perception is key and that one could imagine anything. Being trapped as a prisoner, there are limited resources that one can understand about reality. Coming out of the cave, we can see the unrestricted world. The realization that there is more than what the cave holds, brings upon that the shadow cannot hold them further back. The world passed the caves brings opportunity for individuals to set their own standards and intellectual ideas in how they see the world because not everything is what they emerge to be. Similar to people, there might be a mask that had not yet fallen off of a face. We must discover
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a representation of the normal human behavior as well as the circumstances we presently encounter on a day-to-day basis. The Allegory of the Cave symbolically describes our circumstances as human beings in today’s world. Plato uses a number of key elements to depict the image of the human condition. Plato's images contain relatable ideas in regards to society that are related to my everyday life. By reading Plato I have personally begun to expand my though process and have learned not to rely solely on my senses. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave brings philosophy’s teachings to the forefront and makes it easy for us readers to understand what philosophy is trying to teach us.