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The Allegory Of The Cave In Plato's Republic

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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. 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. 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 …show more content…

At that moment, he is able to realize that what he thought to be the only reality was really a copy of the real reality. Again he assumes that the statues and the fire are the most real things out there; completely unaware that there are other things more "real" beyond his cave. However, when the prisoner is dragged out of the cave into the real world he finally understands and learns that there are other things out there that he has not seen yet that makes up the world and reality. He is finally enlightened by the knowledge he received by observing his surroundings beyond his

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They watch mere shadows on the wall, distorted and controlled images from “puppet-handlers” (Plato 193), who had set a wall between the prisoners and the true world outside of the cave, revealing the shadows of the puppets above the wall, fabricating the truth of the cave. The prisoners “would hold that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things” (Plato 194). Montag, from birth, had been a thoughtless member of his society, obeying the rules and never questioning why. He was at heart, a fireman. A fireman who had enjoyed to burn words, stories, and creativity, “It was a pleasure to burn . . .

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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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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.

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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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As a young child you are the person who escaped the cave. Although, as we grow up we begin to transform into the prisoners in the cave as our creativity ceases to exist and we begin to conform to the ways of society. Everything we know and believe is solely dependent on what others tell us, similarly to the prisoners in the cave, because

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In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses a conversation between his former teacher and an unknown person named Glaucon to lay out this deep and complex extended metaphor. This intricate metaphor is a step by step representation of how one could achieve true comprehension of the world around them. In this, there are four stages one must complete. The first stage is when the people are shackled in the cave, and he/she is required to use imagination to come to conclusions about the realities of life. When the ex-captives break away from the manacles and see the light from inside the cave is known as the second phase, and this is where one tries to define instead of imagine.

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We may blindly believe what is said to us as fact or follow ideas that are supported by false knowledge. “The allegory of the cave" acts as a metaphor for the state of humanity, emphasizing the boundaries of what we see and the difficulty in telling the truth of reality as it truly is. The journey of the prisoner who escapes the cave signifies the quest for knowledge and wisdom, while the captives inside the cave represent people who are born in a condition of

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To understand the context better, let us remember that the Allegory of the Cave is about a group of people—prisoners, to be specific—who have lived their entire lives in a cave, facing a wall. In the story, they are chained in such a way that they can only see the shadows of objects that pass in front of a fire behind them. They believe these shadows to be the real world, and they are content with their limited view. One day, one of the prisoners is freed from his chains and is able to leave the cave. He sees the world outside and realizes that the shadows on the wall are only false realities.

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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?”

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In the “Cave Allegory” there are cave dwellers who are forced to only look at a wall, which displays shadows of objects carried by people who pass by a huge fire behind them. To these prisoners, these shadows are their reality, their truth. They do not know that they are mere shadows. In the story, when one of the cave dwellers is forced out of the cave into the light, he is disoriented because of how bright it is outside. Once he gets accustomed to the light, he explores and is then enlightened about the truth.

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Truth is often a term that is taken into consideration when one is verbally speaking, but most find it rather difficult to truly define truth. While every person can attempt to uniquely give their own interpretation to what the world regards as truth, the realm of philosophy presents several brilliants ideas about the concept. In general, the study of philosophy recognizes two truths: objective and subjective. Objective truth can be described as truth that has always existed whether one knows it or not, while subjective truth is dependent on the person’s ideas and feelings towards a reality. Influential and well-known philosophers such as Mortimer J. Adler and Plato have contributed thoughts that often present similar ideas about the definition

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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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The power of learning is something others cannot take away. It is innate in you. But we must be cautious when learning since, from the first statement above, it can also be an illusion from fast-changing technologies. Plato's allegory emphasizes the transformational potential of education and intellectual reflection. Plato proposes that education and philosophical inquiry can release people from ignorance and reveal more profound truths about life, much like the freed prisoner in the allegory obtains wisdom and understanding by emerging from the cave.

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The one that escapes and follows the light sees the true world and becomes enlightened. There are many connections that can be developed to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The prisoners in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave can represent the modern day prisoners, citizens of a dictatorship, citizens of third

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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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