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Comparison Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And Happiness

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In Pursuit of Light: The Allegory of the Cave and Happiness

Since the age of Plato, mankind has searched for the true meaning of ultimate happiness and enlightenment. These concepts, while abstract and intangible, have manifested themselves in what people of the modern era would generally describe in terms relating to “socioeconomic status” and “the American dream”; such ideas are widely accepted as aspirational goals. According to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, our self-imposed boundaries cause us to unknowingly limit the potential of happiness, the greatest human aspiration.

Understanding Plato’s allegory requires a look beyond the literal meaning of the text and ponderance of the deeper, metaphorical significance of the cave in question. Despite the age of Plato’s philosophical texts, they have held the same general interpreted meaning throughout the centuries following his time. The cave itself is a metaphor for the societal boundaries within which we live, content with but largely unaware of the nature of our collectively defined reality. Metaphorically, the prisoners are those who live within the society in question and are chained …show more content…

To some extent, they are prisoners; we can assume that they have not left the cave, but hold a slightly different role in this constructed society. While they are not in complete compliance with their reality as the chained prisoners are, they are the ones perpetuating the state of reality within the cave. They differ from the chained prisoners and the enlightened individual through their attempts to define the boundaries of reality. While it is true that mankind’s aforementioned goal remains true for these individuals within the cave, this is not where their similarity with us ends; they are also intent on giving the abstract concept of enlightenment a tangible, completely comprehensible meaning through the shadows on the cave

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