ipl-logo

Analyzing Plato's 'The Allegory Of The Cave'

773 Words4 Pages

Ap Language Summative Assesment Unit 1

Lamin Williams
9-12-16
4A
Mrs. Archer

In “ The Allegory of the Cave” 360 BCE, Plato emphasises that the cave explains human existence and envisions the world as a dark cave, and humans trapped as prisoners in that cave. Using symbolism he supports this statement by demonstrating to his students that our minds conceive the sources of shadows and the material world we live in as false truths. His purpose is directed towards his students, to help others out of the cave, to reveal the burden of false truths also know as the shadows. Plato uses a didactic tone to help his students understand and encourage them not to stay in the cave, but to free themselves and help others become free of the shadows the …show more content…

The person who releases the prisoners has been enlightened from the bonds of a false reality. The prisoners become completely free when they are realesed from their chains, and accept what things truly are, rather than what they had perceived them to be.
The journey out of the cave represents a prisoners’ unwilllingness to change and a resistance to accept new truths. The prisoners have to force themselves out of the cave into this reality. Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society.
The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in. The material world is the one we can see, touch, hear and smell, are just false truths of the reality. By relying just on your senses is making yourself blind from the real world. The world we see is a reflection of the forms the real world represents. By understanding these forms can lead to true

Show More
Related

Rhetorical Devices In The Allegory Of The Cave

751 Words | 4 Pages

The significance of this story from my point of view is, regardless of the way that Plato's Allegory of the Cave can give off an impression of being pretty darn dismal, it is a reminder that is proposed to be an update for everyone to stop making due with a defective, unexplored life. Since Plato assumed that people could, over the long haul, free themselves and scramble toward this present reality by driving a presence of philosophical thought, that Allegory is upsetting is genuinely planned to be motivational, to make people perceive how obliging and self-vanquishing an "unexamined life" can

Read More

Allegory Of The Cave

742 Words | 3 Pages

The Allegory of the Cave illustrates Plato’s and Socrates’ belief that the onerous processes of obtaining, possessing, and sharing knowledge are reserved for the robust and wise members of society: philosophers who possess the strength and motivation to bear the burden associated with truth. The three prisoners in chains know their world only through small reflections from the outside because they have never “seen anything of themselves and one another other than the shadows cast by the fire on the side of the

Read More

Theme Of Allegory In Fahrenheit 451

692 Words | 3 Pages

Ray Bradbury alludes to the Allegory of the Cave in Fahrenheit 451 to demonstrate communism and the way the society is controlled. Fahrenheit 451’s controlling, communistic society has an overwhelming amount of information that is not given to the public. The society is a ‘what you see is what you get’ type and discourages any amount of creative thinking and does their best to do so. Likewise, The allegory of the Cave presents the same general concept but in a straightforward way.

Read More

The Allegory Of The Cave In Plato's Republic

451 Words | 2 Pages

At that moment, he is able to realize that what he thought to be the only reality was really a copy of the real reality. Again he assumes that the statues and the fire are the most real things out there; completely unaware that there are other things more "real" beyond his cave. However, when the prisoner is dragged out of the cave into the real world he finally understands and learns that there are other things out there that he has not seen yet that makes up the world and reality. He is finally enlightened by the knowledge he received by observing his surroundings beyond his

Read More

Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And Watchmen Analysis

892 Words | 4 Pages

Within the story of Watchmen, multiple characters experience what Plato philosophized in the Allegory of the Cave. In order to understand how Plato’s allegory is used in context of Watchmen, one must first learn how Plato intended his philosophy to be interpreted. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a fictional narrative that revolves around the life of a prisoner in an unusual circumstance. This prisoner along with others have been locked underground since childhood.

Read More

Allegory Of The Cave And The Achievement Of Desire, By Richard Rodriguez

853 Words | 4 Pages

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” symbolized the cave in which the prisoners are held captive as a symbol of enlightenment and coming to know the reality. The allegory symbolized the cave as human’s narrow-mindedness as well as the concept of dogmatic finality, assumption of knowing everything when there is always more to learn and access. The “Allegory of the Cave” and “The Achievement of Desire” by Rodriguez share similar ideas in the sense that Rodriguez as a student came to an ultimate realization (at a specific point in time) of the effect his isolation had on his relationship with his family. According to Socrates and Plato, knowledge is gained from separating oneself from one’s current state to ascending to reach something that is higher,

Read More

Allegory Of The Cave In Brave New World

1315 Words | 6 Pages

In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley presents us with a Dystopian society, for as we read, there is a revelation of the true nature of the society. The basis of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is that the shadows in which the trapped conformists see are the flawed reflections of ideal forms, such as beauty. Within the society of Brave New World, the entire population appears perfect for they are manufactured to be that way, therefore, the ‘outsiders’ appear as the flawed reflections of their ideal forms, which is present in the Allegory of the Cave, as well as other similarities. Within the trapped society in the World State and Plato’s cave, there is a general origin of knowledge, since birth.

Read More

The Allegory Of The Cave In Plato's Republic Book VII

595 Words | 3 Pages

Socrates’s allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic Book VII is an accurate depiction of how people can be blinded by what they are only allowed to see. The allegory does have relevance to our modern world. In fact, all of us as a species are still in the “cave” no matter how intelligent or enlightened we think we have become. In Plato’s Republic Book VII, Socrates depicts the scenario in a cave where there are prisoners who are fixed only being able to look at the shadows on the wall which are projections of things passing between them and the light source.

Read More

Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

735 Words | 3 Pages

This is just like in our lives when we are born into something and we do the same thing over and over again each day for the rest of our lives. This is when we are in the cave and looking at these images going past. Plato then starts to give us the idea that what if these prisoners are forced to leave the cave and venture out elsewhere so they do not have to look at the wall anymore. This is when we are scared to change the way we do things like doing something everyday for the rest of our lives but you change it anyway because you know it is for the best. Once they begin to leave the cave they are confronted with physical objects instead of these different images.

Read More

The Matrix: Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

922 Words | 4 Pages

In the movie there were several scenes that made direct but subtle allusions to the claims and ideas of famous philosophers concerning the nature of reality and the human condition. One of these claims that is referenced is that of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which is in one of his famous writings, The Republic. In the

Read More

Plato's Allegory Of The Cave Modern Day Analysis

606 Words | 3 Pages

#2 Plato’s Allegory In Modern Day Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is about the human perspective and enlightenment. In todays society Plato’s allegory is still relevant and is deeply rooted in education. College students are a perfect analogy for the “Allegory of the Cave”. We are told from the very beginning that we need to have an education to be successful in life.

Read More

Searching For Truth In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

836 Words | 4 Pages

Searching for the truth is very challenging, as the world today entrenched in lies. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” briefly tells a story about cavemen being chained on most parts of their body, restring all movement including their head, since childhood. Then, he discussed the consequences inflicted onto the cavemen, specifically their perspective towards the truth after being chained for a long period of time in the dark cave, which resembles many events occurring in a person’s daily life. Based on the discussed effects, the author argues that human beings should always seek the real meaning of truth.

Read More

The Nature Of Reality In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

728 Words | 3 Pages

They are tied in such a way that they are unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. The prisoners are chained since their childhood and have not seen the outside world ever. Behind them burns a fire. In between the fire and the prisoners there is a small path which is used by the people.

Read More

The Allegory of the Cave Applied to Trump's Government

1264 Words | 6 Pages

The Allegory of the Cave is one of the most famous metaphors in Western philosophy. This continuous metaphor speaks about educations effects on the human soul. As one of the prisoners held in the cave is freed from his bonds he is able to begin experiencing reality, however painful the initial reaction is. When the same prisoner leaves the cave he is blinded, but eventually adjusts and views the world around him and acknowledges the sun as the cause for everything he sees. The sun essentially is representative of a Form of the Good and thus the prisoner has reached a type of higher understanding.

Read More

Human Nature In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

1159 Words | 5 Pages

The emergence from the cave is an enlightenment of intellectualism, when all the difficulties and confusion of life is gone and only reality exists. Plato uses the shadow of fire as a metaphor for intelligence. The people who emerged out of the brightness represent truth; the freed prisoner. The chained prisoner would “look towards the firelight; all this would hurt him, and he would be too much dazzled to see distinctly those things whose shadows he had seen before”(Plato

Read More

More about Analyzing Plato's 'The Allegory Of The Cave'

Related Topics

Open Document