Depression In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

While interpreting Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave’’ in which is a representation that described a narrative of the society of people in before Christ years. I realized how there was a major comparison of people in today’s society that reflected the same prisoner traits as the prisoners that were described in the dialogue. According to the Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” It described conditions of people chained at birth unable to function as independent individuals that were locked in a protracted dark cave. They were allowed to rotate their necks but could not stand up unless told to or leave the cave. Within this cave they could only watch a wall showing flash images and objects as if the prisoners were watching a play or movies at a theater. They believed that the pictures shown on the wall were factual in which they were just shadows of objects that were behind them. The objects reflected forms and puppet that were placed up by puppeteers to create shadows on the wall. The prisoners were unable to see the puppeteers and seemed as if they were watching a puppet show in the dark.

Prompt: Define Plato 's “Allegory of the Cave”. What is the central message? Is he describing education alone? Where does politics come in?

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.

Plato who was a Greek philosopher was born around the year 428 BCE, where he was known for opening an academy. The academy was considered the first university in the western world. In “The Allegory of the Cave”, three prisoners were tied up and could only see the shadows that reflected from the wall. They have been living in the same cave as prisoner for practically there whole life. The shad`ows represent things that are believed to be true. One prisoner got free and experienced the reality of the world but the other prisoners just laugh at him when he comes back. Plato is telling people In “The Allegory of the Cave”, the rhetorical appeal is a metaphor of the sun and symbolism.

In Plato’s, Allegory of the cave, a key theory I found was the importance of education. Plato uses an “allegory to illustrate the dilemma facing the psyche in the ascent to knowledge of the imperishable and unchanging forms” (104) Based on my research of the republic, the allegory can reveal multiple hidden messages. Plato describes, ordinary mortals are chained within an underground chamber, which according to Fiero, represents the psyche imprisoned within the human body. These mortals can’t look sideways only straight ahead. They also can’t leave the cave and are facing a cave wall that they can see shadows from a fire of what they imagine are men. These mortals have been in this cave since childhood, which makes them believe the shadows themselves are the men, not a reflection of an actual man. Again, according to Fiero, the light, represents true knowledge, and the shadows on the walls of the cave represent the imperfect and perishable imitations of the forms that occupy the world of the senses.

When it comes to addiction, there truly is no easy way out. The worst type of addiction comes from the opium poppy, heroin. Heroin addiction can be extremely easy to fall into and can have some awful withdrawal symptoms. In many ways the recovery process of heroin can be paralleled with “The Allegory of the Cave” in such that being on the drug can be similar to living in the cave, the process of quitting the drug can be viewed as leaving the cave, the after effects can then be used to describe living in the upper world, and finally relapsing can be described as returning to the cave. A person using heroin, and the prisoners who are dwelling in the cave, can often be seen as one in the same due to the fact that they are almost held in their

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’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

Depression is a growing problem in today’s modern society. In the United States sixteen million adults currently suffer from clinical depression. This leads to over thirty thousand suicides, and five hundred thousand suicide attempts amongst Americans every year. Even people in a “perfect” world can not escape this reality. Bernard from Brave New World suffers bouts of depression often. Depression is a growing issue that is not always recognized for its severity, nor treated with the attention it requires, which only results in the worsening of the issue. Despite the lack of attention, depression is one of the nation’s leading causes of disability. It is an easily treatable mental health disorder, and with rising general knowledge and awareness

In society today most people live by what is call “social norms”, most people follow these norms and some choose not to follow them. Social norms are certain things in life that everyone does to be accepted by their co-workers, family, friends and even strangers. Some may feel that they have to live by these norms to get through life without being rejected and to be known as a “normal” person, hence the word “norm”. If a person were to stray from this path and just do what they felt like doing and do what made them happy as an individual, would they be criticized? In Plato’s Allegory of a Cave he describes an example of people conforming to the norm they were born into and then shows the results of a person emerging from this community

In Plato’s, “Allegory of the Cave”, a key theory I found was the importance of gaining knowledge. Plato uses an “allegory to illustrate the dilemma facing the psyche in the ascent to knowledge of the imperishable and unchanging forms” (Fiero, 104). Based on my research of the Republic, the allegory can reveal multiple hidden messages. Plato describes in the Allegory, ordinary mortals who are chained within an underground chamber, which according to Fiero, represents the psyche imprisoned within the human body. These mortals can’t look sideways, but rather only straight ahead. On top of this, they also can’t leave the cave. These prisoners are facing a cave wall that they can only see shadows reflecting from a fire of what they imagine are men. These mortals have been in this cave since childhood, which makes them believe the shadows themselves are the men, not a shadow of an actual man. Again, according to Fiero, the light, represents true knowledge, and the shadows on the walls of the cave represent the imperfect and perishable imitations of the forms that occupy the world of the senses.

According to Plato, reality consists of two realms: the physical world, which we experience with our five senses, and the world made up of forms and ideas. Plato explained that forms are the perfect templates that exist somewhere in another dimension, yet he does not specify where, and these templates are the ultimate reference point for all objects that we observe in the physical world. Plato implied that our lives, which we perceive as solid reality, are in fact just a shadow. Plato explained this further through his allegory of the cave.

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” from his book, The Republic, highlights the ignorance our society faces by utilizing imagery and extended metaphors within a fictional conversation between his mentor, Socrates, and his brother, Glaucon. In my opinion, Plato’s main argument or point, in a sense, is that our people don’t question “why we are here” or “why this is happening” enough. We, as a society, merely accept the state of reality that we see and do not “turn our heads” around to see the bigger picture. Plato’s allegory reflects Socrate’s Theory of Forms, the things we see within the world are a pure reflection of the things the world represents. A metaphor of Socrate’s Theory of Forms is presented in Plato’s story when the prisoners, while

Plato, a famous Greek philosopher who wrote the 'Allegory of the Cave', attempted to answer some of these philosophical questions, most notably about the nature of reality. He tells the 'Allegory of the Cave' as a conversation between his mentor, Socrates, who inspired many of Plato's philosophical theories, and one of Socrates' students, Glaucon. They discuss the meaning of reality and how we as humans can be blinded by the dark shadows of reality. The shadows of the objects in the story represented society’s way of telling us what is real, and what is normal.

Depression affects close to 19 million Americans, 9.5% of the population in any one given one-year period. At some point in life 10% - 25% women and 5% -12% of men would probably become clinically depressed. Furthermore it affects so many people that it is regularly referred to as the mental illness “common cold”. It is predicted that depression exacts an economic cost of over $30 billion each year, but the value of human torment can’t be measured. Depression not only causes discomfort to those who are depressed, but in a like manner it causes misery for their friends and family who usually don’t know how to help. There are 9 categories of depression, the first type is called major depressive disorder this syndrome decreases a person’s ability to eat, sleep, work, and function as he or she typically would. It stops people from enjoying activities that used to be pleasurable, and it often makes them to think negative about the world and themselves. Major depression is generally debilitating and may occur in several occasions in a person’s lifetime. The second type of depression is called Dysthymic disorder and it is a moderate however more enduring type of major depression, someone with dysthymia may seem to be chronically mildly depressed to the point that it appears to be a factor of their personality is not common for someone to struggle with this condition