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Plato's allegory of the cave reality
How does the allegory of the cave symbolize Plato’s views on the relationship between sense perception and knowledge
An essay about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
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In the Allegory of the Cave by Plato the people who can only see shadows create their own version of the truth based on what they know, “To them [the people stuck in the cave unable to move],’
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 the beginning portion of “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato introduces the story of the prisoners in a cave to illustrate the foundation of why some do not like change. He begins by explaining there are three prisoners in a cave who are bound and can only see the shadows of objects projected by a fire behind them (Plato 201). The author begins with this portion of the example to set the context for the rest of the allegory. Plato then goes on to describe how one prisoner is released to the outside world to experience the
The fire and these statues cast shadows across the wall which the "prisoners" are able to see. As the prisoners watch these shadows and because they are the only things they see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world. The Shadows are mistaken for reality because of the ignorance that comes
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.
PREDICTING SIZE AND LONG OF APPLE AT HARVEST 1. Background The United States is one of main countries in the world that leading, importers, producers and supplies for fresh apples, and commercial apples production is very common in the United States. Washington State is a leader state for producing apples fruit in United States.
Additionally, Plato utilizes the cave and the light within and without of the cave to symbolize the misconception of one’s perception and the actual truth. For example, in the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato says, “the prison-house is the world of sight” (203). He implies the cave is a limit of what one can see, while outside of the cave there are no limits to perceiving an idea. Being limited to what one is able to experience, the individual will view a concept with difficulty to knowing the truth. While one who is not limited to experiences, he or she is able to question and deeply understand the truth.
“Today, 45 million people collectively owe nearly $1.7 trillion in student loan debt. Every 26 seconds, one of those student loan borrowers defaults on their loan” (The Student Borrower Protection Agency). These are terrifying numbers that affect everyone not just individual debtors. Student debt is a ripple effect that will affect generations to come. Such problems become even worse for individuals; “these are ‘kitchen table’ financial issues that affect every aspect of their lives” (The Student Borrower Protection Agency).
The state of most human beings is depicted in this myth of the cave and the tale of a thrilling exit from the cave is the source of true understanding. Plato has portrayed the concept of reality and illusion through the allegory of the cave. One of Socrates' and also of Plato's, chief ideas was that of forms, which explains that the world is made up of reflections of more perfect and ideal forms. In the Cave
He showed five men chained in a cave. They couldn 't see anything, just the shadows of the projections that other men put in front of the fire. Plato said that the shadows were the closest thing they had to reality. Later on, one of the prisoners get free and gets the opportunity to go out and see the true world, so he realized that the shadows were not real. The freeman was amazed at all these new things he had seen and learned of, so when he got back to the cave the other four men laugh at him because they thought he was crazy.
The most significant part in the extract which provides evidence for this stamen elaborates ‘let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened… Human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light… their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them’. (Plato, 380 BC, cited in Asscher and Widger, 2012). This section can be represented as metaphor for individuals who only believe what they are told, their mind is trapped alike the prisoners meaning they are unable to see the light which can also be represented as freedom or even autonomy.
In “The allegory of the Cave by Plato”, great philosophers offer a theory concerning human perception. Plato described it starting with three prisoners; these prisoners would have face the wall of the cave in a set position. They would not be allowed to move. A fire would be placed behind them with a walkway between. Along the walkway, people would walk carrying different items.
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
To find the root of this uncertainty, we can look to Sontag’s reflection of Plato’s “the allegory of the cave.” In summary, “The allegory of the cave” is about prisoners chained inside of a cave, with no idea of what the outside is like, being given names for the shadows of objects they’ve seen. When the prisoners are freed from their chains, the world they find is not as easily understood, and those years of isolation result in an incomprehensible reality, something analogous to experiencing the relationship between photographs and the reality which they attempt to portray.. In actuality, there is no direct answer as to whether or not there are different types of knowledge or degrees of it. In regards to the the degrees of knowledge, elements could be displayed as“indisputable evidence that the trip was made, that the program was carried out, that fun we had” (Sontag, 9).
