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Allegory Of The Cave Analysis

972 Words4 Pages

Andrea Palenikova, POLI 201/001, Oct 12, 2015

Only a philosopher has a true understanding of what justice is and that is why he should rule. In the allegory of the cave: you can only see the pictures that are shown in front of them. They see the shadows being cast on the wall - to them, the shadows are making the noises. The cave is like an organized political life - when you have a community, you do have these shadows cast and they create a meaning for the city. They do not truly see nor know, yet they are creating images to make meanings. What the people are seeing is not the thing itself; their world is their truth. Socrates is saying that every political community shapes the reality for the citizens. Puppeteers are poets, legislators, …show more content…

They are trying to give the people something while on the other hand, they could just be giving them nothing. The people in the cave want what the puppeteers are giving them. When a prisoner is freed (escaping the cave), if you try to tell him that the things on the walls are just shadows of nothing, he would be upset and he would think what he saw on the wall was more real than what he sees now. He wouldn't trust you. He is being dragged out of the cave into the daylight. The free prisoner is going to be annoyed and experience pain. There will be intellectual and emotional pain as well as physical. He will realize that the life he had before was just a shadow. They will start to see things illuminated by the sun and obtain a higher degree of knowledge as he starts to gain a knowledge of things as they are. He can't look straight at the sun but at a reflection. This is the same with the good. Cannot fully grasp it but can get nearer to it. Socrates is suggesting that just as eyes adjust to sunlight, we can adjust to the good as we come to understand it better. Life is pleasant in that he is achieving human excellence. It is enriching his soul to be free. He is in some way participating with

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The people who are chained up get set free by the keeper, who is a symbol of the sun, or the “Rooster” who wakes people up from their illusions. The people are blinded by the sun and they want to go back to their illusion of life. This is when the people are in the Belly of the Whale or when they are symbolically dead. Once the people realize there is no way of going back to the way it was, they are “reborn” from their illusions and live their lives to the fullest and not take for granted what they have. Plato’s Allegory of the cave is

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“The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, and A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt all have in common a person that is challenged by a group of people on their beliefs, ideas, as well as knowledge. In “The Allegory of the Cave”, one person is challenged based on his knowledge about the world outside the cave. Next, An Enemy of the People by Henrik Ibsen, Dr. Thomas Stockmann is challenged by the people of his town on his belies of the water being contaminated that later is proven to be true because he sends a sample to be tested. Lastly, A Man for All Seasons by Robert Bolt, Thomas More is challenged by King Henry and his followers on his idea of divorce because he is dedicated to the Catholic Church which doesn’t approve of King Henry divorce. Furthermore, I believe Dr. Thomas Stockmann is a greater hero than Thomas More.

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The marionette players in “Allegory of a Cave” were the dominating figures in the cave that had mentally and physically presided over the shackled prisoners, leading for a visually impaired sense of truth and understanding. The marionette players had restricted their knowledge by only showing them shadowy figures of real things “made from wood and stone and various materials.” The marionette players use the figured and place them in front of the fire to manipulate the prisoner’s teachings. Plato uses symbolism to discuss how easily we can be manipulated again by an upper force and how it truly makes our character. Tied to the government and officials, they have a strong lead in front of us due to their full understanding of truth and capability

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In Plato’s allegory of the cave he enplanes the effect of society. In the allegory there are people chained in a cave. All they know are the shadows that they see. The shadows are being made by the shadow master who is in front of a fire. So if the shadow master shows them a shadow of a toy dragon then the people in the cave will believe that dragons are real because they saw the shadow.

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As a young child you are the person who escaped the cave. Although, as we grow up we begin to transform into the prisoners in the cave as our creativity ceases to exist and we begin to conform to the ways of society. Everything we know and believe is solely dependent on what others tell us, similarly to the prisoners in the cave, because

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In the dialogue, Socrates claims that after a prisoner leaves the cave and sees the sun (which symbolizes truth and knowledge), he will not participate in the cave dwellers’ ignorance. Similarly, individuals who chose to become enlightened to the true nature of reality do not partake in the ignorance of humanity; instead they encourage individuals to believe in philosophical knowledge. The cave dwellers believe that the shadows on the walls are real, just like individuals accept the reality of the world with which they are presented; however, they are both illusions, which are perceived. This is because over centuries human perception is merely a shadow of reality and individuals are like the cave dwellers who believe the perceptions created by society (Cleveland). Therefore, humans need to raise past the perceptions governed and taught by society in order to break through ignorance and travel on a path of

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There are puppeteers in the cave who cast shadows of objects with a fire that later become a construct of reality for them. Eventually, one of the prisoners were able to break out of the chains and escaped. As he leaves the cave, he is blinded by the sun, however, adjusted to this new world. He is amazed as he sees everything more clearly. He discovers the true beauty and meaning of life as he explores more of the world.

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First off, one rhetoric that " The Allegory of the Cave" has is a metaphor. A metaphor is comparing two unlike things. The focal thought is, a few detainees were bolted into a give in and the couldn't escape. It speaks to that how much freedom is worth. In the event that you never had an opportunity to see the outside world, you just can envision what it resembles.

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The analogy takes place in a deep cave, where a group have lived there since birth without ever seeing outside. These people are also bound, so that they can only see what is in front of them. Behind them is a wall with a variety of statues on top of it and between them and the wall is a fire. Lying behind the partial wall are another group of people who are manipulating the statues on top of the wall. The statues, in addition to the fire, cast shadows across the wall that the prisoners are facing.

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Allegory of the Cave” Each and every day in this modern society or to be precise in the 21st century we individuals are presented with innovative, new and different pictures through the virtual world that includes the media, government and social networking sites. The allegory of the cave is relevant to today’s world because people today as well as people in the cave blindly followed the views of other people without actually questioning the fact, why something is believed so. There is constantly someone above us in power for example, the government which controls the media constantly. These are the people who think they can control the entire world or as Plato said the “Ones they keep chained.” Thus in today’s world, people’s views are controlled by posts on social media, mass media and advertisements and last but not the least the way of living.

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Comparing this situation from the story to one’s real life, it can be inferred that in most cases people just see one side of a coin while the reality is perceivable only when one be aware of the two sides. The allegory of the cave also portrays that understanding of the reality is obtainable

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In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the people think that their entire reality is the shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. Plato explores the truth and criticizes that humanity does not question what is real. Plato explores that the human understanding and accepting of what is real is difficult and

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