Allegory Of The Cave By Socrates Summary

The dialogue of this story is formal, Socrates speaks in a symbolic matter, everything that he says is important. Not to mention that it relates back to the allegory and theory that he is trying to prove. The reason why this language is so formal is that this was written around 380 B.C when the most authoritative individuals such as mathematicians and philosophers were still living. There is a simile in page sixty-two, “you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show puppets.” This is comparing the low, to a marionette screen using like to convey a deeper understanding of the description. One could say that the big metaphor of this story, is the

On another hand, the chained people also symbolize those who are ignorant to this outside world. The chains are a symbol of what could be our limitation, in a material world, and our confusion with reality. The sun evokes the idea of what is true, and it also represents the knowledge that that escaped prisoner so badly needed. In contrast, the shadows represent lies, some would say they present an illusion to reality. The men in the cave believe the shadowed images to be the truth when they are only a representation of reality since they cannot move their heads to view the actual image. In the story by Plato, the allegory concerns what one calls human perception. In his story, Plato claimed that to gain real knowledge, one must use philosophical reasoning. If a person does not use their philosophical reasoning, the knowledge that they gain through what they see or hear, is just an opinion, a sliver of the true reality. Plato’s tone in The Allegory of the Cave is serious, he presents all this information and the consequences. The tone was also dark in the way that, when he explains his allegory he feels sad at the blindness of