Essay On Allegory Of The Cave

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Plato claims that self-existent and unchanging forms and not the reality obtained through sensory experience are perfect concepts for objects that can be seen in our physical reality. In his Allegory of the Cave, Plato explains how a slave could be set free from chains to the shadows of this world by becoming aware of the higher reality of forms (the objects’ true forms once they leave the cave). His allegory claims that all humans are held prisoner in darkness as we believe actual reality to be the things that we can see around us. However, there is a true reality that exists beyond the physical world. For Plato, he believed we experience this absolute reality when our soul detaches from the body. He believed that the body and soul are two …show more content…

These ideas can be found in Christianity as well. In the Christian faith, it is believed that there is a perfect being that is eternal, unchanging, has absolute truth, and creates all that is seen in the universe, this being is one they call God. 3. Similarly, in the way that philosophy helped inspire religious ideologies, philosophic thought also majorly influenced the scientific field. Aristotle, whom was Plato’s student and Greek philosopher wrote his text On the Soul, which included many ideas that ultimately set the foundation of sciences like biology and psychology. Aristotle looked at the characteristics of living things and juxtaposed them to all inanimate objects. His theories focused on the types of souls that different kinds of living things acquired, which were differentiated by their different actions and argued against its independence from the body. He used scientific reasoning to arrange a hierarchy of souls that increase in complexity in different things. The lowest and most basic characteristics of the soul are found in plants, which he stated only have the capacity for nourishment and reproduction, thus having a vegetative soul. Animals are next in the hierarchy and have,

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