Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

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In “The Allegory of the Cave” Plato presents a scenario where there is a group of people whose life consists of the shadows on the wall of a cave, this cave is their entire world as they have not experienced anything else. These people know nothing of the outside world because of how they are chained next to each other and not able to move from looking at the cave wall. Outside a fire is burning and people stand in front of it facing the cave opening except the cave people don’t know that. The figures shadows are all they see and its these shadows and wall that are what’s real and the truth to them. The people in the cave try to name the figures and this is how their world and society is founded. Plato then pushes the scenario to another level. He writes about how a person who escaped from the cave would react to the newfound world and its truths. Plato says, “When one of them was freed, and suddenly compelled to stand up, turn his head, walk, and look up toward the light, he’d be pained …show more content…

Plato explains that a university’s true purpose is to turn their students sight the right way. I believe Winthrop University has successfully done this with me. Before entering this school, I believed our world was one where people were good and kind with a few rare exceptions. My classes, especially my Geography class, has shown me that the world isn’t as nice as I first thought.. It was hard for me to accept how cruel people could truly be at first, but I eventually came to terms with the information. I first realized this in my geography class when my professor had us watch a video on the spread of the Ebola virus and write a paper on it. When I saw how people ignored the sick and pretended like everything was okay just so they could cling to their power sickened me but it did help me in a