...The cave is very dark because there is little light inside it and hardly seen the objects. There are some chained people on their necks as well as feet, these chained people cannot move easily. Similarly, there is also another world out of the cave world, but between these two worlds, a wall is raised. On the wall, many other people move with different things on their hands and their shadows fall in the cave world. The people inside the cave cannot raise their head completely so that they can only see the shadows like illusion, which they believe, as real but it is just their illusion. - See more at: http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/creationofknowledge/allegory-of-the-cave.html#.Vm1VcUp961s Plato also talks about an ideal state, which is a utopian world. In an ideal state, there is equality among the people because no one is superior or inferior in this world. There is free flow of knowledge justice and truth, everywhere in the ideal state. Plato is also known as the first communist because of his concept of equality among the people. In the ideal state, rulers are also true philosopher whose wealth is not money or gold but spiritual knowledge. Those are the best rulers to rule the ideal state because they are reluctant to rule and active to serve the people as true servants. In other words, the rulers at the ideal state are never thirsty to exercise power, they do not want to impose cruelty over the people but instead they are worried of the condition of the people and the welfare...
Words: 1383 - Pages: 6
... Mr. Platt Revelation of the Soul We live in a society where we are told what to eat, drink, think, etc. Living in such a ritualized lifestyle can often leave us blind. However, we don't even realize it. The "Allegory of the Cave," by Plato, is more than just a story; it's a tool that can be applied to our life in almost any situation. For instance, looking into this story, I realize how much it is related and connected to religion. It is so easy to just do what everyone else is doing just to feel accepted. Which was me, a conformist, trying to fit in. Plato's story not only opened up my outlook on life, but was an interpretation of my allegory of the cave–being saved spiritually. I did everything and anything just to fit in with everybody else. When he or she is a child, they usually practice the same religion as their family, because it's the only way one knows. When I was younger, my parents enrolled me in a private school, Goshen Christian. I didn't know what the importance of religion was when I went there. I was just going because my parents told me to. Which relates to the cave in a way, for instance, Plato says, " human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light…; here they have been from their childhood, and their legs and necks chained so they can not move…" (Plato 449). This relates because even from my early childhood I felt as if I was...
Words: 1101 - Pages: 5
...In my own opinion, I believe that the short story “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is basically a story that represents the way in which people perceive what they to be reality. The story’s location is in a cave, where there are people who are chained down and forced to look at a wall that is in front of them, for their entire lives. They cannot stand up or move their heads in any direction. The cave is completely pitch black with the exception of a fire lit behind them, casting shadows upon the wall that they are forced to stare at. There are people behind them using puppets, and different materials to cast different shadows on the wall. These shadows on the wall are what the people who are chained in the cave perceive as reality. One of the people who was chained down in the cave gets released out into the real world, thinking that the shadows he had been seeing was actual reality. The story describes how when he was released, what he saw was aching to the eye, and he was not yet even fully out of the cave. Plato says how since the sight of these new images would be so unnatural and uncomfortable for the man, he would feel a need to go back to the cave and stay where he feels comfortable, or safe. One he was fully surrounded by the outside world, full of sunlight, he was completely disturbed and blinded by the suns rays. Plato states how the man will at first see the shadows and the reflections of the people he is amongst, and then he will look up at the sky and to the sun, and...
Words: 775 - Pages: 4
...In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato presents his abstract view of human nature and truth, whereas Douglass presents his personal journal in “Learning to Read and Write.” Compare and contrast Plato and Douglass' essays and ideas. How might Douglass view Plato's allegory based on his experience? The most basic question that we can ask ourselves is: who and what am I? Moreover, the answer to this question about human nature (what a human being is) will greatly affect how we see ourselves. In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, he managed to let us visualize people living in a big cave, where these people were chained by the leg and by the neck and they couldn’t move. They can only see what is in front of them. He explains to us how the “The Allegory of the Cave” is the education of the soul toward enlightenment. According to Plato, the chains that bind the prisoners are the senses and the prisoners symbolize ignorant people, the raised wall symbolizes the limitation of our thinking. The idea of Plato’s essay describes how most people are trapped in their own world, unaware of what is happening around them. According to Plato the “The Allegory of the Cave” is the common man and it represents all people before they are fully educated. The common person sees nothing but the shadows on the wall of the cave. In Plato’s essay, the fire has a significant meaning to the common man; it is the source of light and the only reality he can see as it sheds light into the cave. Then comes...
Words: 666 - Pages: 3
...The Allegory of the Cave and Disney Movies The Allegory of the Cave is one of many vivid and complex stories in Plato’s book entitled “The Republic”. The Allegory of the Cave is a story about the unseen truth of the outside world. The story takes place underground in a cave where prisoners are forced to watch a show that they believe is what life only consists of. There is a blazing fire set back behind them and a wall where puppets are displayed so that it casts images on the wall in front of the prisoners. Their heads are chained so that the only thing that they are able to see is what is being projected on the wall. For the prisoners, this is all that they know about life and all they have ever known. A prisoner later escapes and finds his way out of the cave and into a world that he did not believe existed. He was blinded not only by the light but blinded from what he missed out on for so long. He was so happy of what he has seen but discouraged at the same time of what the cave has made him believe for such a long period. He traveled back to the cave to tell the others of such a beautiful place above them, but to his dismay, the prisoner’s scolded him and didn’t believe a word he said. For the prisoners, the cave was all they knew and they were angry that someone would try and tell them otherwise. The prisoners didn’t want to believe they were being hidden from the truth. Plato used many metaphors in the story, For instance, I believe that the cave is used...
Words: 1086 - Pages: 5
...Allegory of the Cave Kimberly McClure PHI 103 Prof. Victor Reppert February 28, 2014 The stages of the prisoner in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave are as follows: There are three prisoners who are tied to some rocks in a cave. They have been imprisoned in the cave since birth and can see nothing in front of them but a stone wall. When people would walk on the walkway the fire would cast shadows of the objects they were carrying on their heads onto the wall in front of the prisoners. The prisoners thought these shadows were real objects. Then one of the prisoners manages to escape the cave. He was accustomed to the dim light of the cave so when he first surfaced out of the cave he was blinded by the light of the real world. After his eyes adjusted he was able to appreciate the variety of the real world. The escapee then returns to the cave and tries to tell the other prisoners that there is a better world out there. More real than the one they are in. they do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free. As a child I always believed what adults told me. I was very naïve and wanted to believe the best about people. I was limited in where I could go and what I could do because I was just a child. As I grew older and was able to find out things for myself I felt that I had more freedom. I began to think more for myself and was able to find out if things I had been told were true or not. I also went to a private school and after graduation I could...
Words: 510 - Pages: 3
...as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers. The Allegory of the Cave can be found in Book VII of Plato's best-known work, The Republic, a lengthy dialogue on the nature of justice. Often regarded as a utopian blueprint, The Republic is dedicated toward a discussion of the education required of a Philosopher-King. The following selection is taken from the Benjamin Jowett translation (Vintage, 1991), pp. 253-261. As you read the Allegory, try to make a mental picture of the cave Plato describes. Better yet, why not draw a picture of it and refer to it as you read the selection. In many ways, understanding Plato's Allegory of the Cave will make your foray into the world...
Words: 284 - Pages: 2
...Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. where humans are depicted as being imprisoned by their bodies and what they perceive by sight...
Words: 686 - Pages: 3
...Candelaria Philosophy Midterm Paper What does the allegory of the cave suggest about the nature of education? The allegory of the cave is supposed to be a metaphor for the world we are living in. That finding this truth or overall good is how people will be able to gain the most knowledge. Socrates is explaining to his student, Glaucon, how he believes it’s our own ignorance of goodness and truth that will prevent a man from gaining this nature of education. What Socrates fails to mention in my own opinion is how this allegory supports a role in the nature of education. In my essay I want to go over what my interpretations are of this allegory and how it’s structured to represent our learning throughout our life. This will lead to my argument explaining how irrelevant this metaphor is simply because it is an allegory. For my second argument I will mention how I disagree with Socrates views on the nature of our education. For the last part of my argument, I want to go over what I believe is also involved with the nature of our education, not being just the “Good”. I want to briefly go over what exactly this allegory represents to me. By establishing my understanding towards what the allegory means, I can hopefully strengthen my future points that I am making. It is obvious that Plato structured this allegory to represent the divided line that separates what we know from our senses and our mind. The allegory isn’t just four stages of the divided line but also four...
Words: 1756 - Pages: 8
...The Allegory of the Cave In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave’s entrance. Bound to their chairs since childhood, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in front of them with shadows being displayed. Their view of reality is solely based upon this limited view of moving shadows; this is what is real to them. Plato illustrates, in The Allegory of the Cave, that humanity believes aimlessly in their beliefs, prohibiting any comprehension of the truth of their existence. The "prisoners" do not realize that they are being held captive, since that existence is all they have ever known. “One might be released, and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round, and to walk and look towards the firelight; all this would hurt him, and he would be too dazzled to see distinctly those things whose shadows he had seen before” (15). What Plato is trying to tell the reader is that a man cannot leave the cave himself, he needs foreign help to achieve true reality. The only way to successfully leave is if you are “unplugged” from the game of life, almost as if “...someone would drag [a man] thence by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, and never stop until he could drag him out into the light of the sun....” (19). Upon his release into the free world, “he would have to get used to it...” (21), Plato says this to make the reader apparent of the fact that...
Words: 665 - Pages: 3
...Allegory of the Cave Plato’s work on the allegory of the cave represents the awareness of the human beings towards their surrounding in the face of prejudicial society views. Plato realizes that humankind can speak and think without any mindfulness of his realm of form. In the myth, Plato likens uneducated people to prisoners chained in a cave without the ability to exercise any mobility. The only thing visible to them is the cave wall and some light fire burning behind them to create some warmth in the cave (Plato & Parker, 2005). A parapet exists between the fire and the prisoners, in which the puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers behind the prisoners clutch the puppets that cast their shadows on the cave walls. However, the prisoners cannot see the puppets but can hear the echoes of objects and see some shadows on the caves wall. The prisoners can hardly recognize the real cause of the shadows and they suppose that the shadows are real. According to Plato, if a different shadow is cast that resembles a book, the prisoners are likely to recognize it in their own language. Thus, in his view, prisoners would be mistaken, since they would be referring to the shadows in their own language that pass through their eyes than the real things that cause the shadows. Plato’s objective was to show that the general terms used in a certain language are not the names of tangible things that we see but the things we can internalize in our minds. Plato shows how humankind should...
Words: 592 - Pages: 3
...Aylin Vargas English 1301-416 Allegory of the Cave Annotation The son of a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a career in politics when the trial and eventual execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. He abandoned his political career and turned to philosophy, opening a school on the outskirts of Athens dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Plato's school, then known as the Academy, was the first university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A.D. 529, when it was closed by Justinian. Unlike his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings are in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in...
Words: 3704 - Pages: 15
...Rebecca Flores Professor Jim Read English 101 Online 28 August 2013 “The Allegory of the Cave” In “The Allegory of the Cave” a fictional dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon takes place. As the story unwinds, the role of personal knowledge unfolds and begins to impact the message conveyed. Plato took the liberty to separate his story into stages as the prisoner starts to come to the realization that he has been living an illusion all along. As the illusion turns into a realization, one becomes familiar with the interpretation Plato intended for one to understand the importance of education. Plato had the assertion that man was born ignorant yet had the capacity to fulfill his own personal knowledge. Socrates begins to set up a scenario where there are human beings who have been living in a cave since birth. The prisoners are “chained so that they cannot move” and only able to view a low wall that was places in front of them (Plato 66). A fire is their only source of light and with that they are able to see their shadows. In this part of the story, the prisoners are unaware that there is more to offer in the world than the fire and their shadows. They are ignorant yet unaware of this because to them it was natural to only see such few things. The cave was the only thing they were aware of and this prevented them from building personal knowledge and fully becoming enlightened. The cave symbolized a barrier that the prisoners were unable to cross. It was what they were...
Words: 777 - Pages: 4
...The meaning of the Allegory of the Cave, to me, can be described as a person or persons being blinded by what is actually happening in the “real world.” What they believe to be true is not actually true but since they have only been shown one viewpoint they have nothing else to go off of to form an opinion. When a person is shown what is actually real at first they cannot believe and would prefer to be back in their own world. Eventually, though, they come to accept the reality and anything else, such as going back to the cave, would not suffice. This concept can be applied to life in many ways. One scenario that is familiar to my life would be with the Amish. They grow up into their teenage years being isolated in Amish country. When they come of age they are allowed the chance for Rumspringa, which allows them the chance to go into another world. During this time they have the opportunity to do what others would consider normal. Some of the Amish that leave cannot accept what they are seeing and turn to drugs and alcohol. Generally though, most are not a fan of the new lifestyle, they are as what “normal” would consider preferring to stay blinded and the ones who do stay have decided to accept and embrace the actual reality. Once an Amish teenager does decide to leave though they are cutoff from their family, which keeps the cycle of excluding any actual light into the cave in which the Amish...
Words: 264 - Pages: 2
...These philosophers were the authors of the ancient parables, and used them as a way to teach a few elected students, who could prove themselves able to understand them. The student had to be a good listener, but first he had to prompt the storytelling with a question. Then, his teacher, answered with a parable. “The Allegory of The Cave” is an ancient parable used by Socrates, who is a classical Greek philosopher, to teach his student Glaucon, what is like to be a lover of wisdom and a seeker of the truth. He starts his lesson with this...
Words: 1494 - Pages: 6
