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Reality And Human Perception In Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

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Plato’s theory, ‘The Allegory of the Cave’, aims to explain the nature of reality and human perception. With this theory of his, he aims to answer questions like ‘why are we here and what is reality?’ He explains this theory as a conversation between his mentor, Socrates and one of his students, Glaucon. Plato claimed that the knowledge gained through our senses is not real knowledge. In fact, real knowledge is the knowledge that is gained through deep philosophical reasoning. Knowledge gained through our senses is very opinionated and thus is not valuable enough. In the dialogue, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave. Inside the cave are prisoners who are chained up so that their legs and necks are immobile and they are made to face a wall. Behind them is a fire and between the fire and the prisoners is a wall/walkway on which puppeteers are trespassing with objects in their hand. These objects are in the shape of human and animal figures and also everyday objects. The prisoners cannot turn back and all that they see are the shadows or flickering images of the objects being carried by the puppeteers. All that they hear are the sounds of the puppeteers when they talk. To the prisoners, this is reality because this is all they have been exposed …show more content…

They would actually be shocked to find out that whatever they had been exposed to by far and whatever they had presumed to be the ultimate reality, was in fact not so but were actually shadows of the real images. If now the prisoners were actually taken out of the cave and been exposed to the real world, the disorientation and shock would be even more severe. The light of the sun would be even brighter than that of the fire and they would be able to see the real world with their own eyes, absolutely crystal

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After Socrates experienced a new reality and nature, he planned on going back to the cave to persuade the prisoners to join him. He asks Glaucon if his eyes will have to readjust to the darkness of the cave after being in the sunlight. Because the prisoners were used to seeing the illusions of shadows inside of the cave, they did not want to change their perception of the world and leave their home. Socrates asks, “And if they can get hold of this person who takes it in hand to free them from their chains to lead them up, and if they could kill them, will they not actually kill him?”(Plato). Socrates is planning on freeing the prisoners from their chains and taking them out of the cave, but he questions Glaucon if the prisoners would kill him if they got the chance.

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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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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

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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.

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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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In other words they only know about that false reality that they are living in and to them there is nothing else. Plato then goes on to describe of how those people are enlightened when one is taken out of the cave and brought into the outside world they are shown the real reality and “enlightened”. If one of the people is enlightened he or she will be motivated to help those in the cave

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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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Plato tells of a group of prisoners held in a dark cave chained to the walls. These people have never stepped outside into the world and can only experience shadows that are displayed on the opposite side of the cave through the light outside of the cave. One of the slaves, now liberated steps outside of the cave and is able to experience reality, or what we can distinguish as objective truth. After returning to explain to the other what he has seen there seems to be quite a difference in opinions(Plato). In his article Plato’s Cave, T.F Morris attempts to dissect Plato’s allegory and explains his belief that “… the shadows on the wall of the cave correspond to what we call reality…(Morris 417)”

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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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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.

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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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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.

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The phrase “ignorance is bliss” has many different ways of being interpreted. The idea that what we do not know cannot hurt us, and that it is better to be in a situation whereby we are ignorant to the truth, rather than a situation where we know a hurtful truth, is one that can be debated at length. One of the best examples of the idea of “ignorance is bliss”, and the impact that the truth can have on people, is the Allegory of the Cave, a concept created by the Greek philosopher Plato in the fourth century BCE. The allegory shows how our perspective can change radically when given new information, and how that new information, when shared with others who are not aware of it, can give them a radically incorrect idea of the truth, when not taken in the proper context. Here, we will first explain the concept of this Allegory of the Cave, before interpreting its meaning and how it related to the greater ideals, values, and convictions that Plato and his philosophical works stood for during and after his lifetime.

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1159 Words | 5 Pages

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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