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Allegory Of The Cave

Decent Essays

Plato was a famous Greek philosopher who was taught by Socrates, another famous philosopher. Plato told an interesting story, one that is referred to as the cave allegory. The story would appear to be simple, but it is riddled with deep symbolism and lessons. In this story, there a group of prisoners who live in a cave. They are shackled to a wall their backs are turned from the light and all they can see are the shadows on the wall. The only light they ever see is the moon, but they cannot face the sun. One day someone came down to the cave and pulled one prisoner out of the cave. The prisoner kicked and screamed, he was afraid of facing the light. But once he was out there he was amazed at all the figures and magnificent things he had missed out …show more content…

The prisoners in the cave represent the soul being trapped in the physical body. Plato believed that our physical body was a prison, that holds us back from seeing the truth. The actual cave represents the material world or what we know as reality. The moon represents "reflected" goodness/truth or knowledge. Just as the moon does not show the true form of objects, the truth gained is not complete understanding. The fact that the prisoners were turned away from the light means how as humans we live our life turned away from the truth or in this case the “light”. The prisoner’s rough ascent out of the cave represents how humans deny seeing the truth or are simply just afraid of it. Plato also believed that not everyone should know the truth or see the light, which is why only one prisoner left the cave and the rest didn’t. The one prisoner who left the cave represents the teacher; the one person who can lead masses to a better life. Most people wonder why Plato didn’t free all the prisoners, but he wanted to relay that not everyone can handle seeing the light. Plato believed only people of special abilities and knowledge could handle the

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