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Description of platos allegory of the cave
An essay about plato’s allegory of the cave
Description of platos allegory of the cave
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We live in a culture where the individual is allowed to define his or her own truth. Specially, truth “has shifted the focus from epistemology, the question of how we discover truth, to hermeneutics, the question of what assumptions one brings to the pursuit of truth” (Barrett, 40). In other words, people’s experiences form their truth. Also, most people bring what they want to be true and then search for the evidence to support that truth. Perhaps a great example in current culture is the area of sexual identity.
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’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.
Plato’s story the allegory of the cave identifies life and societies modern day shackles of the mind. Nowadays for example many objects shackle the mind like religion/ cults, drugs or alcohol, money, family issues or mental illness .Religion / cults can shackle the mind especially when people are raised and almost forced into believing in this religion. Doing drugs and alcohol are another big shackle because of addiction and the popularity of doing drugs and drinking alcohol. Money is a huge shackle to mind and to the society. Having money is a struggle that can hold people by having to much or not enough.
Plato, a student of Socrates, a famous philosopher and the creator of “The Allegory of the Cave”; In the writing, he articulates the purpose of the legislator and how it supposed to functions. He states that the legislator “did not aim at making any one class in the state happy above the rest” (Plato 286), the happiness was meant for everyone. The legislator is supposed to hold “the citizens together by persuasion and necessity making them benefactors of the State” (Plato 286). The legislator during Plato’s time was a direct democracy, everyone had a voice and acted as one body.
Kaitlyn Lynn-Spanu Sikorski ENG 3U1- 11 April 5, 2023 Plato's Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix What is real in life? Why do unexplainable things happen? So many questions unanswered. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, The Matrix, and our own society highlight that the worlds are a prison of false reality, they are constructed/controlled by form makers, and the acceptance of truth about things in life aren't easy to face.
Success, a word we hear everyday and live our lives to achieve, but what does it mean to you? Throughout this school year, while exploring success I have learned what success means to me. While your stand may not be acceptable to others, success is when you have found happiness in your position in life, because you know you have given it your all , and have become a person you are happy being. People have a habit of basing their success off of the expectations of others.
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.
#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.
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.
Plato discussed a two layer view of what he perceived as reality; the world of becoming and the world of being. The world of becoming is the physical world we perceive through our senses. In the physical world there is always change. The world of being is the world of forms, or ideas. It is absolute, independent, and transcendent.
During the 399 B.C., Socrates for rejecting the Greek gods and for putting wrong moral ideas in his student 's minds was sentenced to death. But Socrates’ goal wasn 't that, his goal was to encourage his disciples to find any reason by themselves for what is true and real. After Socrates’ death, Plato, who was one of his best students, opened the Academy- school that continued Socrates 's ideas. In this School, Plato wrote The Republic, where he states that each individual’s perspective of reality is changing, and can change more every time. People get more knowledge about the world and their surroundings.
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.
