...One of the most famous allegories in Philosophy is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. An allegory is typically a moral or political story that can be interpreted to have a hidden meaning or lesson. Plato’s allegory could have many different lessons throughout it, the interpretation is truly up to the individual hearing the story. For me, I believe that when Plato was comparing the Sun as being the same as the Good, he was referring to the sun being like the light of knowledge, or when an individual achieves enlightenment. I interpreted Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as his explanation of people coming out of the darkness of illusion and opinion, and into the light of knowledge and wisdom. Plato used the light of the sun to help him to explain the...
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...------------------------------------------------- PLATO’S ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE ------------------------------------------------- (flow of events) Plato's allegory of the cave describes a group of prisoners living in a dark cave. They are bound in chains preventing them from moving easily. Being stuck in the same place and position all the time, they have nothing to do but stare at the wall in front of them. A fire casts a light against that wall on a platform in the cave. While people on the outside of the cave go their own business, the objects they carry cast unclear shadows on the wall. As a result, the prisoners in the cave spend their time trying to figure out what the shadows represent, assuming that sounds from the outside came from the shadows themselves. One day, a prisoner was dragged outside from his restraints by force. He was disoriented and confused when he saw the outside world for the first time. As time went by, he began to see the brilliance of the world and returned to the cave to tell the other prisoners about what he saw. His fellow prisoners think that he has gone crazy and lost his mind, rather than being relieved to hear of what else the world holds. Since they only know life within the confines of the cave, they assume that is all there is to life. ------------------------------------------------- ELEMENTS Cave - represents the physical world of illusions in which most people live. Shadows on the wall - symbolize the assumptions and guesses...
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...Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a tale of truth and reality versus ignorance. It is an analyzation of human perception and can be applied to modern life. Allegory of the Cave also presents the difference of being closed minded versus being open minded. It shows the advantages gained to those who are open minded. It also presents the disadvantages and how ignorant one sounds when one is closed minded. Plato's Allegory of the Cave takes place in a dark cave. There are prisoners in shackles with something in place to keep their heads from turning. They are basically forced to only look in one direction. Behind the prisoners there is a fire and a runway where showmen can place items such as vases. The fire casts shadows on the walls the prisoners are facing and they play a game. They begin to guess what the shadows are and those who get the most right are considered to be the smartest people of the group. These prisoners know nothing but what is casted in front of them. To these prisoners, they are not shadows of objects but real objects themselves as they have no reality. Out of the group, one prisoner is freed and allowed to venture. He begins to look at the fire, the statues, and treys to comprehend everything. After direct sunlight to his eyes he is pained and confused. In that moment, being released might have seemed like the worst thing possible to that prisoner. Being utterly confused is frustrating and the pain of turning his head and staring at direct sunlight is a...
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...In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners spend their lives on-ly seeing shadows. Once free, one of the prisoners experiences intense pain when he looks at the light of a fire. And when he exits out of the cave into the light of the sun, this causes even more excruciating pain and rage. But a whole world is now revealed. After getting accustomed and acclimatized, the former prisoner feels lucky for the transformation and wisdom and feels sorry for the prisoners in the cave. He goes back to help them, but back in the cave, none of them believe what this freed man describes. People with big ideas that challenge other’s reality, lifestyle and worldview are often ridiculed and killed. Plato and Aristotle are the heart and soul of western...
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...In Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave," Socrates tells an allegory of the hardship of understanding reality. Socrates compares a prisoner of an underground cave who is exploring a new world he never knew of to people who are trying to find a place of wisdom in reality. According to Socrates, most people tend to rely on their senses too much and believe the world as it is appeared to our sight. In order to free our souls from this mental prison, Socrates suggests that we should go through a phase that does not only prepare ourselves for the real world but also prevent us from heading to the wrong direction to seek the truth - education. In conclusion, Socrates believes those who have reached a higher level of knowledge and wisdom should bear a responsibility to lead the community and improve it because they are blessed with better education and are able to enjoy a different reward than the power to control others like most politicians do. Two thousand years after Plato has written down the allegory, it is amazing how we can still relate it to our everyday lives. As Plato wrote in "The Allegory of the Cave," education is a very important phase that leads us to wisdom and helps us to get accustomed to the real world with less difficulty. Apparently, this theory has proven to be correct for the past two thousand years. Until today, those of higher wisdoms are mostly people who have mastered a thorough and solid education; and they certainly have become the leaders of the...
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...is how you perceive and grasp something in a genuine way. In the psychological section, genuine knowledge divided into Noesis or understanding and Dianoia or thought. For example, in Plato's allegory of the Cave, when he is outside cave and seeing the forms then recognize the truth. For the right opinion, it is divided Pistis or belief and Eikasia or Imagination. In the allegory of the cave, the belief refers to when he see objects in the cave, and the imagination refers to when he sees the shadow on the wall inside the cave and hear an echo. Secondly, the epistemological, It is the study of the evidence. Plato thought that this was the world of the forms. We could have genuine knowledge...
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...Plato’s Allegory of the Cave presents a dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates that discusses human awareness simultaneously with human ignorance. Plato concludes that humans think and act on assumption, rather than knowledge. In Allegory of the Cave, Plato argues knowledge gained through sight is an opinion of an individual’s imagination, and in order to find the holistic truth and education, an individual has to rely on more than just sight. The Allegory of the Cave divides man into two groups:those who perceive surroundings by sense or those who perceive the world by spirit. Those chained in the cave base their “knowledge” on sensory perception through sight. This is what Plato deems as falsehood, as “the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images,” (Plato, 267). The cave itself represents misunderstanding because man is only able to gain from observational evidence. The shadows seen from the puppeteers is the evidence man uses to support the idea that observational evidence provides knowledge. The prisoners talk in terms of the shadows they see, rather than the actual objects; reality is impossible to investigate through the senses. Humans should attain concepts from physical objects through the senses, but should not rely on them fully....
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...Sean McLean Economics 3 November 2015 The Allegory of the Cave Plato's ideas in The Republic were truly revolutionary, and far more advanced than anyone during his time had heard. In book seven, the allegory of the cave is introduced. This is one of the most talked about ideas in philosophy. This allegory is Plato's way of showing the effect of education on the souls of humans. A group of people have been stuck in a cave since their birth. Their necks, and legs are bound by chains, so that they may not turn around. Behind them, there is a large fire that never ends, never burns out. In front of the fire, there is a wall, wide enough for humans to walk on. He calls these humans, "puppeteers." The reason why he calls them that, is because they are...
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...Plato's allegory of the cave is a story about a group of prisoners that are chained down in a dark cave. What they are prisoned for who knows, but they have been prisoner's to this dark cave since they can remember. The only light visible to them is at the mouth of the cave. The prisoner's of the cave are Plato's analogy of uneducated people who lack common sense. People who live in a world of imagination and illusion, not knowing what's real and what isn't. What Plato states as the, “ignorance of our human conditions”. Outside the cave are the people of knowledge. The people who live in the light, or the enlightened people. When Plato speaks of the cave and the people dwelling in it, it makes me think of our world now and the people I believe to be stuck in a “cave”, whereas that cave is a...
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...Characters from Platos’ Apology and Allegory of the Cave and Voltaire’s Story of a Good Brahmin will be compared and contrasted in this composition. In addition, a view into the attitudes of these characters reveals our pursuit and frustration while seeking truth. Ultimately, these stories provide an introspect to who we are individually and challenges within our society. The levels of interest, complexity, and diversity these stories afford are similar to good advise from a close friend. In short, much was learned from the musings of this composition, and I hope others encounter a similar revelations. Keywords: Plato, Socrates, Voltaire, philosophy, compare, contrast A good allegory is a precious gift. Voltaire and Plato present stories...
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...Is Fahrenheit 451 related to ancient works of literature? Certainly Ray Bradbury based this best selling novel heavily on Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Parallels can be drawn between many of the characters in the two literary works. Montag has an especially strong connection to Plato’s Allegory, in that he is very similar to the hero. Montag is related to the hero in that he wants to help others out of the cave, resists returning to the cave, and is ridiculed and even persecuted for being out of the cave. When Montag comes up with the idea of sharing his books with Mildred’s friends, he attempts to guide others out of the cave like the hero. The night before Beatty confronts him for possessing books, Montag says this to Faber, talking about...
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...In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Plato thinks that most people live their own world and don’t pay attention to other people and their truths. People remain oblivious to other people’s truths or the world’s truth. Andre Bryant, a character in the Freedom Writers , describes his class as all dumb kids that will never go anywhere. He fails to believe in himself or his classmates. Andre’s own mom does not even look at Andre because she believes he will be in prison like his father. Since so many people doubt Andre, Andre doubts himself. Andre Bryant starts to break his chain when he firsts receives his journal. When Andre first meets Mrs. Gruwell, he asks her why does she deserve his trust? But, by the time he receives his journal, he trusts her enough to let her read his journal, which contains extremely private thoughts. Andre changes when a drug dealer asks him to make a deal for him, but Andre declines so he can go to the Holocaust Museum. Andre benefitted attending the field trip immensely because for him and all of the students, it opened their...
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...The naked truth is always better than a well dressed lie; however, the naked truth may not always be the easiest thing to hear. Finding truth can be a tedious task or an emotional roller coaster to those who are blind(687) to it. Plato discusses this in his Allegory of a Cave. Most people would rather just distance themselves from the truth than to risk finding it; however, it is better to find truth before a big surprise. There are many reasons why few people search for truth and that is because of their narrow-mindedness, self preservation, and laziness. Most people do not search for truth because of their narrow-mindedness. They do not want to be open to new ideas or ideas that challenge their beliefs. Religion is a great example of this....
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...When asked what reality is, most would argue it consists of the things our senses allow us to register. When we hear the repetitive sound of an alarm clock in the morning, or see the sunrise peeking through the shades of our windows, we assume that whatever we are experiencing is real. Since we encounter these situations mostly everyday of our lives, it is understandable to make such assumptions. But how can we truly know what is real? And how would we react if someone were to question what we consider to be concrete? Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and the Netflix original series “Stranger Things” both address these questions in their own way. The “Allegory of the Cave” is about a small group of prisoners that were held captive in a cave...
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...423 BC to 348 BC and was a extremely important figure in the development of philosophy. His theory of the forms and allegory of the cave are well known and respected metaphysical ideas of Plato. These metaphysical ideas however highly contrast Karl Marx's ideas on what is real. Karl Marx's metaphysics are that the universe is all there is and all there ever will be. Which is a materialistic view and states that there...
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