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],’
In “The Allegory of the Cave”, the prisoner was ignorant of the true nature of their reality and was limited by their perception of the world. In Plato, Socrates illustrated an image of a prisoner chained to the cave wall their whole life, facing only a blank wall. Behind them was a fire burning that was casting a shadow. They believe this casted shadow was their only reality. However, one of the prisoners made a bold attempt to free himself and escape outside the cave.
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.
Book VII ("Allegory of the cave"), describes a scene carry out in a dark cave. In this scene, a group of human beings have been living in a cave since birth; they have never seen the light of day. These people have only focused on what is in front of them but never what is beyond what they can see, "chained, can't turn their heads." Behind them is a fire and behind the fire is a wall. There are various statues placed and manipulated by other people on top of the wall.
In Plato’s allegory of the cave he enplanes the effect of society. In the allegory there are people chained in a cave. All they know are the shadows that they see. The shadows are being made by the shadow master who is in front of a fire. So if the shadow master shows them a shadow of a toy dragon then the people in the cave will believe that dragons are real because they saw the shadow.
In life, the world one lives in is always assumed to be the reality, without anyone questioning its credibility. As Iris Murdoch once said, “[People] live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. ”(Iris Murdoch Quotes). In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, prisoners are trapped in a cave and chained so that they are to face a wall and only see the shadows of objects that pass behind them.
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.
In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a story is told of chained prisoners in cave that can only see right in front of them. There’s a fire that burns behind them and they perceive only what shadows they see. These shadows were all they knew and to the prisoners these shadows were real. One prisoner breaks free and leaves the cave to which he discovers the blinding light of reality. The reality he and the other prisoners had their backs turned to.
The "Allegory of the Cave" is just that, an allegory, or a symbolic story. In which, I like to associate Plato 's Allegory of the Cave with education. Applying his analysis of conception of reality, it shows how a person start off in ignorance (chained to the dark well) and has to be compelled, quite against their wishes often, to be unchained and start the "steep and rugged ascent" into the light, enlightenment, or education. The very root of the word "education" is from the Latin for "to lead out of" implying a leading out of darkness or ignorance. Moreover, once a person gets into the light, they do not want to go back into the cave (darkness).
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.
Since he has knowledge of what he lived inside the cave and the difference after he got out. He is wiser and he puts his knowledge in practice. Having all this new knowledge makes him have the feeling of wanting to go back to the cave, to Inform prisoners of all the good and bad things there are outside, to inform that there is a bigger World outside those four walls. “How could they see anything but shadows if they were never allow to move their heads?”
1. The prisoners represent those people who cannot get rid of the superficial and illusory thoughts and understand the real things in the world. Unfortunately, Plato indicates that most of the ordinary people in a society are the “prisoners” and cannot find the real truth. 2. The cave indicates a ubiquitous society, which is an ignorant and backward society in Plato’s mind.
Plato’s short story the Allegory of the Cave, Plato portrays a scene in a cave to the reader that analyzes human actions. The story is about a group of men that are chained for their entire life. The only thing they are exposed to are shadows on the wall of a fire burning by people behind them. The people exposing these men are hiding the truth of the outside world. Plato reveals that humans are easily fooled into believing what they see.
Like any other allegory one that Plato devised more than 2500 years ago and situated it in the (in)famous imaginary cave is meant to point out an overarching idea, concept or a question through the use of symbolism. In Plato's case the allegory questions what is real and whether our human reality is created by us personally or through some external forces. The importance and relevance of Plato's work is best confirmed by the fact that his story fascinated philosophers and laymen alike ever since. It also seems that with further advancement of political and philosophical thought, great Greek's seemingly unassuming description of a man chained down and given a single view at all times is today even more pertinent to human existence. Plato
Because of this they cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these real people that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes of the people whom they do not
