Allegory Of The Cave Analysis

The Allegory of the Cave Plato, is recognized as one of the reputable and admired philosophers of his time and of all time. Dating back from ancient Greece, Plato and philosophers of the like, attempted to answer life’s deepest questions like “what is reality” and “where are we going.” Through deep thought and debate, these philosophers were able to formulate opinions and theories; opinions and theories that are still discussed in today’s modern society. One such example to discuss life and the truth is The Allegory of the Cave, a portion of one of Plato’s most famous works, The Republic. Through The Allegory of the Cave, Plato is able to explain the “The Forms” and knowledge in a context that people of ancient Greece were able to comprehend.

Imagine yourself sitting inside a dark, damp, cave where the only thing you can see are moving shadows on the cave wall in front of you. You can’t move anywhere or see anything besides the shadows, and these are the only things you’ve seen for your entire life, so these moving dark images are the most real things you’ve ever known. At some point in our childhood we were mentally in this state of darkness, we didn’t know anything about the world or have any complex thoughts. How then, were we brought out of our caves of darkness and misunderstanding? The Allegory of the Cave is a well known section of Plato’s

In this allegory the cave represents opinion. The chains represented prejudice. The fire represented the sun. The shadows represent physical objects. The staircase represented philosophy. The outside of the cave represented the transcendental world. The moment of

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is also termed as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave, or the Parable of the Cave. It was used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". It comprises of a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon. Socrates gives a description of a group of people who spent their lifetime facing a blank wall chained to the wall of a cave. These people saw and tried to assign forms of the shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of a fire behind them. These shadows as put by Socrates, are what the prisoners can view close to reality (Law 2003). He further compares a philosopher to the prisoner who is freed from the cave and comprehends that he can envision the true form of reality instead of the shadows which the prisoners saw in the cave and these shadows do not depict reality at all.

An allegory is a kind of story in which writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story. One of the most important allegories ever to be gifted to humankind is Allegory of the Cave. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most potent and pregnant of allegories that describe human condition in both its fallen and risen states. The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. It is also known as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave, or the Parable of the Cave. It is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon at the beginning of Book VII of The Republic.

Has someone ever looked at you and immediately disregard you for you are just because of your ethnicity? Have you ever done it someone? Racism is a huge culture issue that we have not only in America, but in other parts of the world, but it does not matter the color of one’s. What really matters is the character they have withheld inside but are not given a chance to express because someone didn’t even bother to give them a chance. This is idea comes from the book written by Plato, “The Allegory of the Cave” where in the book Socrates speaks of man being in a dark cave all their lives not realizing the truth until once they reach the end of the cave to see that the light is the truth. The truth is the reality of life.

The process of apprehending true knowledge is a task unfit for those who cannot overcome the concepts that the truth is associated with. This task of discovering knowledge tests an individual and their dedication to the process. However, this process is grueling and does not always yield the expected or desired result. According to philosophers, such as Socrates and Plato, humans are born with innate knowledge that becomes accessible through reasoning and life experiences. Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave describes of a group of people, in a cave, that have been shielded from society for their entire lives and were given an alternate and limited education. One man is forced out of the cave and into the light of the real world, where he

Upon first exiting the cave we are blinded by the brightest of light, though we cannot recognize its origin, we know that it charts our course. Slowly we begin to notice at first little variations of light, mostly little color changes, as if we could not have possibly have taken it in all at once. This is the first realization of education; past truths are either put into perspective or proven false. Either way our mind is finally opening up to the ideas and images that have evaded us for so long. The ability to reason is building within us and we start to question all things past we knew to be true. The eyes start to see even more now and the pain has subsided. We are ravenous and cannot seem to get enough of our surroundings. The strangest thing starts to happen, it seems that the more knowledge we acquire the more questions that present themselves. The same could be said for education in two different ways. First, the more knowledge that we acquire, the more ability we seem to have for the future acquisition of knowledge. Its as if we are not limited by the container we use to store this information, on the contrary, we now have discovered that its depths are limitless. Secondly, the more knowledge we acquire, the more confidence we seem to find in regards to taking on bigger challenges and tasks.

“Allegory of the Cave”, written by Plato, is story that contrasts the differences between what is real and what is perceived. He opens with Glaucon talking to Socrates. He has Glaucon imagine what it would be like to be chained down in a cave, not able to see anything other than what is in front of him. He tells a story of men that were trapped in a cave and were prisoners to the truth. These prisoners have only seen shadows. But because of their ignorance, these slaves to the cave believe that the shadows are real. The story goes on to say that one of the men has been dragged out of the cave. He is not happy to see the real world, yet upset because he is being taken

In his allegory of the cave, Plato describes a scenario in which chained-up prisoners in a cave understand the reality of their world by observing the shadows on a cave wall. Unable to turn around, what seems to be reality are but cast shadows of puppets meant to deceive the prisoners. In the allegory, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to leave the cave. On his way out, he sees the fire, he sees the puppets, and then he sees the sun. Blinded by the sunlight, he could only stare down to view the shadows cast onto the floor. He gradually looks up to see the reflections of objects and people in the water and then the objects and people themselves. Angered and aware of reality, the freed prisoner begins to understand illusion

Secondly, opinion gives way to knowledge through reasoning, and finally the realization of the forms is mirrored by the level of understanding in the ways of thinking. The input to the resist for knowledge is the reasoning skills acquired through mathematics as they are functional to understanding ourselves. The shadows on the cave wall change all the time and aren’t worth much, but the reality outside the cave never changes and that’s what makes it important. The standards are mainly our concepts of courage, love, friendship, and justice.

In Books V and VI of Plato’s Republic, Socrates claims that true philosophers are the best fit to rule as kings to the cities because of their political greatness and wisdom which stems from their knowledge of the intelligible realm. Through the allegory of the cave, Socrates enhances his argument that the people inside looking at the shadows are constrained within their own understanding in the perceptual and physical realm. In comparison, true philosophers have a greater sense of truth and understanding from their knowledge of the world outside the cave. Ultimately, true philosophers who have true knowledge, contrasting to the others who only have belief, are fit to rule because of their understanding of justice and intent to adequately

In the wonder of a person arises two causes that leads a person to either see a mere reflection of a Form or learn the value of a Form. In “Book 10” and “Allegory of the Cave” in “Book 7” of The Republic by Plato; Socrates and Glaucon discuss the need of a State’s citizens to recognize that all Forms come from one creator and the rest or imitations and that a citizen must learn to question, believe and then retell inforamtion learned to others.

Plato's main goal in the Allegory of the Cave is to communicate the relevance and importance of the concept of intellectual perspective. His real agenda is to illustrate that most people are likely perceiving the world around them in a much more limited manner than they realize and that most of us are, to some degree, living our lives in the same circumstances as the prisoners he

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes how some people only see shadows of reality. Plato believes knowledge can only be true, if people gain it through philosophical reasoning. Marcus in, Freedom Writers, attends a school that feels like a prison to him and other students. His language arts teacher, Mrs.Gruwell, tries to understand how the students feel. Marcus becomes inflamed by this and says, “stop trying to understand us.” He says, “when you die for your own you die with respect.” Then his teacher says, ”when you are dead nobody will care about you.” These words sank into Marcus heart. Then Mrs.Gruwell makes the class play a game called the line game. Close to the end of the game, Marcus realizes how much he has in common with his classmates. He also realizes what Mrs.Gruwell was trying to teach him.