Plato compares a number of things in this essay- the material world to the world of ideas, the life of the mind to work of governing, silver and gold to virtue and wisdom. How does he use his comparisons to make his arguments? 2.)Plato creates the Allegory of the Cave to be a conversation between his mentor Socrates and one of his student Glaucon. Plato sets the story to demonstrate that the “blinded” prisoner or in a more cultural sense the men of iron. The Greeks created 4 classes of civilization the gold,silver,bronze and the iron.
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.
In Plato’s “Allegory of a Cave” the main goal and plotline for the prisoner was to be able to go to the light to gain a full concept of truth, reality and justice. After passing the entranceway, he is met by the light which provides him “sharp pains” which eventually turn into being dazzled by it. However, as he grows customary to the light and the enlightenment that is brought forward to him, Plato questions whether he will fully grasp the notion of it. To present instinct Plato writes, “And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain his his eyes which will make him turn away to thale refuge in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the thing which are now being shown to him? True, he said.”
From an early age, we are taught what is right, what is wrong, how to act, and how to live by societies standards, whatever society one may belong to. Most people don’t question why things are the way they are and even if they do they still turn a blind eye to the truth and go on living the life they live. However, what if I were to say the life we live and are made to believe in, is just an illusion mankind created themselves? Reading Plato’s Allegory of the Cave caused me to pause and reflect on how much truth and knowledge we are actually lead to believe, even in today 's society. From our education system, religious and cultural beliefs, the workforce, and more.
Plato’s Republic, Book 7, talks about the metaphor referred to as "the allegory of the cave. " This metaphor in philosophy is use to describe the importance and effect education or lack of education has on the human mind. In book VII, education is referred to as a light that brightens the different paths that exist in life. It helps open the human mind to things that it was unaware of. Another point made in book VII, was that by educating yourself you become less ignorant to what is out there in the world.
1) In the allegory of the cave, Plato’s main goal is to illustrate his view of knowledge. A group of prisoners have been chained in a cave their whole lives and all they have ever been exposed to were shadows on the wall and voices of people walking by. The prisoners in the cave represent humans who only pay attention to the physical aspects of the world (sight and sound). Once one of them escapes and sees the blinding light, all he wants is to retreat back to the cave and return to his prior way of living. This shows that Plato believes enlightenment and education are painful, but the pain is necessary for enlightenment and it is worth it.
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.
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” we are told of prisoners who spent their entire lives in a cave, chained to the floor. In the dark cave the only thing that the prisoners get to see are shadows cast by figures behind them, and they take these figures as the real thing because this is all they’ve ever seen. These prisoners represent humans, and our boring, unadventurous lives where we perform the same the same routines daily. Through this story, Plato is trying to tell us that we need to break this habit because there is more out there than what we do. He’s trying to tell us that we’re just alive and not actually living our lives to their full potential.
The Allegory of the Cave was a metaphor created by Plato explaining the lack of education and the effect it may have on future generations. Plato begins by having Socrates describe the prisoners inside the cave as being chained by the legs and the neck to a wall with a fire lit just behind it and between that and the fire are people holding up puppets that cast a shadow in front of the prisoners. The voices made by the puppeteers reflects off the wall and the prisoners on the other side believe that those are the voices of the shadows. Socrates and Plato believe that the shadows are reality to the prisoners because they have never experienced anything else. Plato is trying to convey that the cave is the world and the people that inhabit
The Matrix In the movie, The Matrix, the main character Neo was given the choice between taking a red pill or a blue pill. Taking the red pill would then make it so he could see ‘true’ reality, meaning that everything he has ever lived to known was basically a lie. Taking the blue pill would make it so he would keep living his ‘normal’ day to day life as that is actual true reality, as far as he knows. In Plato’s Allegory of The Cave, he explored the idea that the ‘real’ world is a true illusion.
How does the story "The Machine Stops" echo the sentiments of Plato in "The Allegory of the Cave"? "The Machine Stops," The two main characters, Vashti and her son Kuno, live on opposite sides of the world. Vashti is content with her life, which, like most people of that world, she spends producing and endlessly discussing secondhand 'ideas '. Kuno, however, is a sensualist and a rebel. He tells Vashti that he has visited the surface of the Earth without permission, and without the life support apparatus supposedly required to survive in the toxic outer air, and he saw other humans living outside the world of the Machine.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is at its core a metaphor for what Plato believed to be wrong in Greek society at the time. The fact
Are we always at the mercy of others and our own experiences? Are the truths we cling to always reality? Are we ever truly free or are we always prisoners in our own mind? These are some of the questions that went through my mind while reading Plato’s allegory of the cave. Through them I’ve come to understand one of the biggest themes in this allegory is our ability to “shackle” ourselves mentally, but also our ability to free ourselves if only we have the courage.
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.
The Allegory of the Cave is a brilliant writing by Plato that really puts into perspective how we are living as a part of a materialistic and consumer society. The darn thing was written almost 2,500 years ago, and considering the fact that the allegory is still relevant today, Plato’s allegory is surprisingly very close to what contemporary society is like. His arguments are undoubtedly strong since he patches all his arguments well to lower any possibilities of counter arguments, but there is still room for doubt. Also, even with those weaknesses, the prisoners in the allegory are still indisputably similar to the people of today, and the cave doubtlessly like the modern society. In this essay, I will discuss some of Plato’s strength and weaknesses in his arguments as well as how the allegory still applies to the current people and society.
