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Allegory of the cave the cave symbolism
Allegory of the cave the cave symbolism
Allegory of the cave the cave symbolism
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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.
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.
What if every known thing in the world turned out to be misguided? What if people within the world learned ways of life and adapted to environments only to find out that it was all a lie? In "The Allegory of the Cave" from Plato's "The Republic", the same questions were considered and analyzed by Socrates, the speaker of the story. The Philosopher Socrates explicates his allegory of great curiosity to Glaucon, a man of whom Socrates shares his wealth of wisdom with. Socrates' purpose in expressing the allegory is to show how the human race may not always see the truth but rather convince themselves that what they see is the truth. In other words, people allow themselves to believe what they would like to believe. As Socrates speaks, he has a questioning, curious and wise tone towards Glaucon, he speaks as if he does not even know the truth himself.
The Matrix In the movie, The Matrix, the main character Neo was given the choice between taking a red pill or a blue pill. Taking the red pill would then make it so he could see ‘true’ reality, meaning that everything he has ever lived to known was basically a lie. Taking the blue pill would make it so he would keep living his ‘normal’ day to day life as that is actual true reality, as far as he knows. In Plato’s Allegory of The Cave, he explored the idea that the ‘real’ world is a true illusion.
The other prisoners refuse to believe him, and threaten to have him killed for wanting to take them out of the cave. There are many obvious allegorical themes in Plato’s story. The prisoners are living in a state of ignorance and denial. This is meant to represent modern society. The cave itself is a representation of the human physical world.
Jingjing Zhang Instructor Shay Tschirhart ENGL 1311L 31 August 2015 knowledge can be enriching and painful The dialogue “Allegory of the Cave” was written by Plato. His point is that humanity is ignorant about the true nature of reality. Once humans got out of the cave, they went into the real world; they can understand what reality is and get into true knowledge.
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.
Epistemology Essay In his allegory of the cave, Plato tells us that all of mankind is [figuratively] chained facing a wall in a cave, on which wall shadows of objects are projected. Here we stay since childhood, and we cannot leave, unless someone comes and frees us from outside the cave. I generally agree with this theory, and have a few additions to it. By reading this essay, you will understand my opinion, and agree.
In Plato’s Republic where Plato was receiving the philosophical lessons about education from his teacher Socrates, the analogy of the cave was an impressive approach to convey that people believe what they see with their sight without further thinking about whether it’s actually what it is assumed to be. They also tend to be satisfied with being ignorant than being exposed to the truth because the truth is just difficult to experience. It can be painful. That’s why teachers like philosophers are there to open our blindfolds and lead us to light.
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.
The Allegory of the Cave is a brilliant writing by Plato that really puts into perspective how we are living as a part of a materialistic and consumer society. The darn thing was written almost 2,500 years ago, and considering the fact that the allegory is still relevant today, Plato’s allegory is surprisingly very close to what contemporary society is like. His arguments are undoubtedly strong since he patches all his arguments well to lower any possibilities of counter arguments, but there is still room for doubt. Also, even with those weaknesses, the prisoners in the allegory are still indisputably similar to the people of today, and the cave doubtlessly like the modern society. In this essay, I will discuss some of Plato’s strength and weaknesses in his arguments as well as how the allegory still applies to the current people and society.
David Reeves English 115.03 Paper 1 2014-10-30 Literature In its most basic definition, literature is anything that has been written down but in practice it is much more than that. Literature is written to convey information and portray an idea. Literature always contains an intention and seeks to influence the reader in some way. It is designed to always allow the reader to relate to it, even if every reader understands it differently.
Question 1 Eyes can be unsighted in two ways; by the transition from light to darkness or by the transition from darkness to light. The same applies for the mind. Plato’s allegory of the cave is a simile that illustrates how this transition can take places. In the tale, the prisoners sitting in the cave can be said to be the philosopher who sits in ignorance. He only knows the things that have been revealed to him, things that are in plain sight.
