Chapter Fourteen : A Cave Full Of Chaos

How long was I out? You wondered. And where am I? You racked your brain for what had happened before you appeared in this strange cave. The only memory that didn’t seem hazy was of you climbing

In the Allegory of the Cave there are prisoners are chained up together in which they are all facing the back wall. There is a firing behind the prisoners and the only thing that they can see are the shadows of the people behind them. The fire casts shadows on the wall so this is the only thing that they see. Their entire lives have been based on these shadows on the wall. These prisoners have been chained up since birth, so what they see on the walls is all they know. In the Allegory of the Cave, they let one of the prisoners free and is finally able to see the world and feel the heat of the sun. The prisoner has never seen the sun or the colors of the world so once he steps outside; the sun hurts his eyes, and burns his skin. He eventually acclimates, and is able to enjoy everything. Plato uses an Allegory with the relationship between the darkness of the cave and everything that the world has to offer. Plato believed that the human mind has the capability to recognize the ‘ideal forms.’ Plato uses the sun and something good and positive whereas the darkness is dull and haunting. With the sun, there is growth everywhere, light, and color to everything. In the Allegory, after a journey in the real world, the prisoner returns to the cave where he no longer wants to be there. All of the other prisoners believe that the journey ruined his eyes so they do not want to leave the cave.

In the Allegory of the Cave, there is a symbolic representation of an event that did not happen in real life. Is a fictional story in where Socrates asks Glaucon to depict an image of the needs for education, specifically he wants Glaucon to imagine humans as prisoners in a cave and turn sous to the light. In the underground caves prisoners are kept there since childhood incapable of moving their necks, legs and heads because they are all sitting in rows with chains. In general, prisoners are forced to live in a world were they are not able to see and reflect reality. The cave predominantly depicts how individuals are raised in a world were they feel secure throughout their life, and for this reason it was difficult for them to understand the truth outside the real world. Prisoners were living in a world were shadows reflected images of what they believed was to be true. The source of light prisoners have is a fire located above and behind them, more importantly a wall is divided between them, and in this case fire allows the shadows to be viewed which shows the puppet-masters. These are individuals who are making the shadows, noises and using objects to show over the wall. Their focus is to make society be blind and abstained from the real world. Moreover, those shadows allowed prisoners to become comfortable and adapt to the way in which they were living. The shadows also represent the knowledge prisoners may have and for this reason they as society were to live away

Explain the allegorical significance(s) of the cave in Plato’s Republic. How is the cave an allegory of Plato’s philosophy? How is the allegory of the cave an allegory for enlightenment or philosophical education? How and why are most human beings like prisoners in a cave? Who are the puppeteers? What does the world outside the cave represent? What does the sun represent? Etc. What is Plato’s Theory of the Forms? What is a Form? How does the allegory of the cave express Plato’s Theory of the Forms? How is philosophy the art of “turning around” and what does this mean? Is the allegory of the cave relevant to contemporary social and political life? Can the allegory be used to critique contemporary social practices?

The people in the cave are everyday men who think they are seeing the true object being placed in front of them even though they are just the shadows of the objects. Once the man that was unchained and freed to see the real reality of life and objects, he realizes that what he grew to know was not true. The others questioned his statements. They began to laugh and believe that he was crazy to believe such a thing. The men left to see the shadows preferred to remain chained and to see only shadows. Only the man was willing to free himself from the shackles and look at what life really was.

Truth is an abstract concept by which mankind bases all knowledge. It is information that we believe to be indisputably and undeniably accurate. Yet how can we ever prove such information to be true? What about the “truths” that cannot be measured? To insist that something is objectively true is to maintain that it is always true outside of one’s beliefs or perception. However, our experiences, perceptions, and emotions all differ from those of others, and yet we still know them to be a definite truth. That is because in reality, all of the apparent truths that we know, or believe to know, are completely subjective.

By the time The Republic was written the term had a new meaning. Instead of the method previously described, it was now used to describe what something is. “The Republic stresses that true dialectic is performed by thinking solely of the abstract and nonsensible realm of forms; it requires that reason secure an unhypothetical first principle (the Good) and then derive other results in light of it” (Meinwald). In later dialogues like Parmenides, dialectic is used to understand forms in the proper manner.

"A few of the orders today are little more violent, check for yourself," I said, before I started eating the food from the tray. "Daya is safe as well. Your cat sounds like a handful," I added, finishing the food quickly in between sentences. "I've never had a pet before, my father doesn't like animals in the house," I continued. A rather loud voice boomed from downstairs, and it sounded like Monte calling for Iridian. "Looks like your friend needs you," I started, getting up from the bed, and setting the now empty tray to the side. I took out my phone, as it had vibrated a couple of times. "You should go see what he wants," I said as I was reading through the messages.

"No! I don't want this! Let them go, you asshole!" Ethan screamed, twisting violently and futilely struggling against his stronger captor.

“ The prisoners initial reaction of escaping from the cave is one of fear and confusion, a desire to return to the comfort and security of what he had lived with all his life even though now he is aware it’s all an illusion”(Jackson R 23)

Plato’s iconic “Parable of the Cave” explores the give and take of knowledge and freedom. The story touches on enlightenment, the overwhelming fear of the unknown, and if it is even possible to gain the knowledge that brings liberation. Throughout the story, the reader is essentially faced with the question of if knowledge is power, or ignorance is bliss.

Plato wrote “The Allegory of the Cave” in the early 300 B.C. This parable has left many scholars dumbfounded throughout centuries because of the insight Plato fills the pages within the story. It is a story of prisoners trapped in a cave, but specifically about a mans journey from ignorance to knowledge. This is the worldly take on the story—in a biblical point of view it is still a journey from ignorance to knowledge, but in a very different context. The journey from the darkness of the cave into the light of the outside world in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” can be paralleled with the unbelievers journey into salvation.

Crashes of thunder ricocheted off the jagged walls creating a cacophony of obtrusive echoes bellowing into the fibers of their cochleas. Inside, the cave walls were a smooth mud brown color wet with the perspiration from the cold temperatures. The only light was the wet coating of the cave illuminated at the strike of a sporadic lightning bolt, shining like the glaze of finished pottery. While the entrance of the cave was inviting with the light from the storm and boulders which the men could sit upon, slightly past the entrance stalagmites bloomed covering the ceiling with the consistency of a poppy field. Growing in size as the cave grew in distance, the stalagmites grew into chandeliers of spikes threatening to collapse with each eruption and quake of thunder. Each wop of thunder ricocheted off the entrance of the cave propelling down the walls of the cave like a wave of sound only to be swallowed by the black abyss. There was no end to the cave

I nodded. “If we ride down there we have to dismount to get past, and if do that they’ll grab us.”

As he emerges from the cave the sun blinds him. Never before has he witnessed something so bright and intense. Eventually he grows accustomed to the light and begins to see things. He sees trees and birds. He sees houses and people. He is taken back by all there is outside of the cave. He sees a book and then notices it’s shadow. He finally understands that all of his life and all of his experiences were based on shadows, images of things real. No sooner does he understand this than the others try to push him back into the cave. He doesn’t want to go, however. He has seen a new and fuller world.