Close Reading Of Plato's Allegory

The allegory apparently is arranged to equate people who know nothing about the Theory of Forms to these prisoners in a cave. In the passage Plato has Socrates set up the following situations and

In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).

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.

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.

On the surface of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” it is just a simple piece, but the main purpose of the piece is to explain people living in a world of face value and having individuals break free from the main idea to create a new sense of what the world is truly about. In here, Plato uses the writing style of allegory to encompass the use of imagery and symbolism to explain his purpose. He also uses very clever dialogue with constant repetition to represent a bigger idea about the philosophy with chained up people living in a cave of shadows.

The prisoners have been in these conditions since their earliest stages of life. The cave, the wall, and the chains are all the prisoners have ever known. Behind the prisoners, there was a raised path. Above the walkway was a platform, where there was a fire burning, and in front of the fire, was a parapet, which as Plato described it , was like that of the screens Puppeteers use to hide themselves and have the puppets be visible . Each and every day, the prisoners see nothing, but the shadows of the objects and people passing between them and the fire. For their entire lives, the prisoners are exposed to nothing but those images and the sounds made by those walking around. These shadows are all they have ever known, in essence; these shadows are their only “reality”. As time passed, the prisoners would grow accustomed to these sights, later on the prisoners would match the objects with names and the familiar sounds to the images of the shadows (514; Appendix A). In discussing the allegory with Glaucon, Socrates toys around the concept of what could happen to a prisoner should they be released after having lived their lives in the cave, with the only knowledge the possess of the world, are the images and sounds by the wall.

Moreover, “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato illustrates a civilization of physically restricted prisoners. Creating a setting in which underground prisoners are only exposed to a wall, its shadows (whom they see as beings), and the people around them, Plato displays a society of ignorant people who only know what they are able to physically see and experience every single day. However, once liberated by other freed people, these prisoners are able to attain knowledge more easily, and slowly, their individual truths become closer to reality. Despite initially being perplexed and irritated with the realization that what they saw and knew as prisoners is not the actuality of how things are, they, consequently, gain the ability to understand more about the world with their newfound knowledge. Thus, the freed people attempt to free the other prisoners from their chains, and expose them

Plato’s logical strategy in the allegory of the cave is of deductive reasoning. Plato uses a cave containing people bound by chains which constrict their neck and legs in such a way that they are unable to turn around and there is a fire roaring behind them casting shadows on the wall. Since the prisoners cannot turn their heads to see what is casting the shadow the only thing they can perceive are the shadows and the sounds that seem to becoming from them. This is what Plato argues in the allegory of the cave “To them, I said, the truth would literally be nothing but the shadows of the images.”(The Allegory of the Cave Plato). Since these prisoners know nothing outside of the cave they are ignorant of the “light” and are content on

"The Allegory of the Cave," by Plato, explains that people experience emotional and intellectual revelations throughout different stages in their lives. This excerpt, from his dialogue The Republic, is a conversation between a philosopher and his pupil. The argument made by this philosopher has been interpreted thousands of times across the world. My own interpretation of this allegory is simple enough as Plato expresses his thoughts as separate stages. The stages, very much like life, are represented by growing realizations and newfound "pains." Therefore, each stage in "The Allegory of the Cave" reveals the relation between the growth of the mind and age.

This paper discussed The Allegory of The Cave in Plato's Republic, and tries to unfold the messages Plato wishes to convey with regard to his conception of reality, knowledge and education.

Plato explores his idea of Forms in the Allegory of the Cave. Plato describes this simple setting of men living tied up in a cave, surrounded by darkness and only being able to see the shadows of objects due to a flame behind them. They give names to these shadows because that is the only reality they have been given since birth. This is essentially all they are aware of. Once one of the men break free he realizes that up to that point everything he is aware of is actually false. There is a real world beyond the cave and the man is able to explore that. After experiencing some sort of joy from the lightness in the upper world he returns to the cave to share what he has learned only to be criticized and killed for trying to release the other

Socrates and the sophists had completely polar theories regarding truths and absolutes. The sophist philosophy states, that people can't judge what is right or wrong regarding other people. Because, what is wrong for you might be right for them. They believed you should do whatever benefits you in that moment. Socrates totally refuted this idea. He believed that absolute truths and unchanging morals did exist. One of the views against the sophists was brought forth by Protagoras, he said, “How can this view be true when you could say that the sophist view isn't right for me, therefore I won't believe it.” and the sophists couldn't reject this because it's they're own philosophies. What was Plato's point in his allegory of the cave?

Why am I here? A question asked by almost every human being during various times of their life. According to Plato’s Allegory we are here to be educated, open our minds and live a life that it filled with knowledge and experiences. I came to Concordia to get an education and to play soccer. I love the New York area, it is far enough from home that I feel like I am in a new place, living a new life. When one lives life with an open mind and allows them self to see the world and learn from each event they experience, they will live a much more fulfilled life; a life with purpose. In Plato’s Allegory, Plato uses various objects like light, shadows, and chains to symbolize lessons he wants readers to get out of life.

Plato’s dualism theory which is depicted during the accounts from Allegory of the Cave is more often than not a process of the minds maturity as one progresses in life. It is important not to limit your ideas too centrally and to remain open minded as one follows a path to higher education. Many of us can relate to this state of mind in everyday life, for me this is best portrayed during my battle with depression. Depression, “the cave,” has a tendency to hold you back. Not really being able to see the silver lining in things, one forgets their true ambitions and goals. It is easy to remain depressed because fighting back means doing something that puts you out of your comfort zone. Simple tasks become projects and depression slowly overwhelms

Socrates continues the conversation with Glaucon and now focuses on the obligation of the guardians and philosophers to serve the people as a result of their education.