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.
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.
In the allegory, Plato tells how the prisoners are to understand and observe the shadows as they see them (201). Thus, he is using the object of shadows to be recognized as an individual’s perception. Through the symbolism of the shadow, Plato is able to easily demonstrate the masking of the possibility of a truth. As the escapee is learning about the all the things that are new concepts to him, he is also questions the things that are presented to him and tells the other prisoners what he had observed. Plato uses the escapee as a means to symbolize a philosopher who questions things also enlightening others to other concepts.
“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 philosopher Plato, came up with the theory of forms, distinguishing the difference between the light and darkness, with the “Metaphysics” history. Plato categorized that the good things were visible with the source of sun. While on the other hand, in the darkness there was shadow that not even the objects themselves were noticeable. The believe, was the key to knowledge, he acknowledge this using it in a dialogue with the Cave. “Let me show you in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened”(Plato,Republic,pg.73) In a shorter form of the Allegory dialogue, a person is in a cave looks straight towards the deep of the cave defining the shadow’s of reality, as life.
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
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
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.
These people as well as items would cast a shadow on wall for the prisoners to see. Socrates suggest that the prisoner would start identifying different items and classifying them, “Now if they were able to say something about what they saw and to talk it over, do you not think that they would regard that which they saw on the wall as beings” (Plato 1). The theory
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).
