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Plato's Allegory Of The Cave In The Republic

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In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in the Republic, he alludes to two analogies. An analogy has two fundamental definitions: the distinction between the intelligible and sensible and the proportion of such ideas. The “Allegory of the Cave” helps to show what part of reality we can see and know and the other part of life in which we are trapped and unknowing to the possibilities. It has a lot of hidden symbolism and structure that a first glance may sometimes be hard to see. Socrates uses the Sun and Divided Line analogies to further his emphasis on the intelligible and sensible. The “Allegory of the Cave” has meaning in our lives today and how we grow and prosper as people of knowledge. Specifically, Plato uses an allegory because it makes the …show more content…

In the Allegory, when the man first goes into the world, he cannot open his eyes because the light is too strong. “When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities” (Republic 515e-516a). This metaphor of sight and light is used by Socrates because as the sun radiates light, we are able to see and obtain knowledge. In the Sun Analogy Socrates uses the sun which is good and light which is truth to convey the message of the direct correspondance to goodness and truth. When we use our eyes to see our realities we become more knowledgeable. The Divided Line linearly separates the sensible and intellectual into two sections. The line is further divided between perception, faith, understanding and reason. The Line is important to understanding the Allegory because there is a distinct separation between the sensible and intellectual. The Allegory of the Cave borrrows from these analogies by differentiating knowledge from reality and using senses in order to obtain ideas such as truth, good and

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In the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato breaks the story into four main scenes to demonstrate the path to enlightenment for the unenlightened reader. He uses a story of a man trapped in a cave,

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The allegory of the cave contains a very poignant message about learning and new experiences but it’s not real. It’s written as Socrates telling a story in order to illustrate his point. The first man is forcibly removed from the cave and shown the light, creating a painful experience. Douglass’ story is autobiographical and it shows a true need for knowledge in order to be free from the bondage of slavery.

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“The Allegory of the Cave” depicts our society as one who is ignorant

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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.

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Throughout the last five weeks, I have read three of Plato’s dialogues: the cave allegory, Euthyphro, and the Apology. While reading them, I was able to see Plato’s view of a philosophical life. To live philosophically is to question appearances and look at an issue/object from a new perspective. In this essay, I will explain Plato’s cave allegory, Socrates’ discussion with Euthyphro, and the oracle story in the Apology.

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“An unexamined life is a life not worth living” - Socrates. Both ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory of ‘The Cave’ develops a question of reality and how the world is perceived. This can be closely connected to one of the great Greek philosopher’s sayings where an “unexamined life is a life not worth living”. Socrates states this due to the increasing number of citizens who lived their lives without questioning the world around them. ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory explore how when the world is properly examined the outcome is a new understanding and perception of life.

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Kristen Jakupak Epistemology Philosophy Paper October 5, 2015 Within Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, and Descartes Meditation I, there are multiple similarities and differences in them. Reality is questionable within both of these stories. There is skepticism in them on whether they are truly living, and if it is real, or if it is controlled by something else entirely. In both stories, they also wanted to leave what they understood to be reality, to find what they thought and sensed to be the true reality.

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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.

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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.

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“Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exist in the soul already;” (Plato). Spoken by Socrates in reference to the philosophy of life, this quote depicts the meaning of broadening our horizons in order to gain knowledge and escape the shackles that confine us in the form of deceit. This quote is portrayed in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” as the prisoners detained in the cave are deluded by their perception of reality, and the prisoner that escapes loses that distorted world and becomes enlightened. The cave is a representation of the hidden lies in which the prisoners are provided as the premises of their knowledge and are restrained from the truth to remain ignorant. Ultimately, one of the prisoners discovers that the world in actuality is

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In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses a conversation between his former teacher and an unknown person named Glaucon to lay out this deep and complex extended metaphor. This intricate metaphor is a step by step representation of how one could achieve true comprehension of the world around them. In this, there are four stages one must complete. The first stage is when the people are shackled in the cave, and he/she is required to use imagination to come to conclusions about the realities of life. When the ex-captives break away from the manacles and see the light from inside the cave is known as the second phase, and this is where one tries to define instead of imagine.

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#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.

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Socrates uses many different appeals to logos. For example, when he states that it is improbable that he could succeed in making people worse while so many others are invested in making people better, he is using the topos of greater and lesser. The allegory of all allegories, Plato's Allegory of the Cave is not the rosiest take on the reality of human existence. You might even call it downright bleak: it envisions the world as a dark cave, human beings as trapped prisoners, and all of our experiences as nothing but shadows on a wall. " See human beings as though they were in an underground cave-like dwelling," instructs Socrates, "with its entrance, a long one, open to the light across the whole width of the

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Introduction Plato, a famous Greek philosopher wrote the Allegory of the Cave. He tried to answer some of the profound questions which arose about the nature of reality. He tells the story of 'Allegory of the Cave' as a conversation between his mentor, Socrates (Plato’s mentor), who inspired many of Plato's philosophical theories, and one of Socrates' students, Glaucon (Plato’s older brother). He uses an allegory as a short informative story, to illustrate 'forms' and the 'cave,' in his main work, The Republic (which first appeared around 380 BC). It is one of the most perceptive attempts to explain the nature of reality.

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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

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