Pi and Plato

Platos Allegory of the Cave was both a perplexing and interesting piece of literature to me. It sent a message that I, personally, never even put thought towards. The idea that humans should question everything. This is including their reality. The way that this is portrayed in the story is the three men who believe their entire reality, and the only life is in that cave with them and the shadows they see. When one of them eventually is led to the surface and sees what is really out there. Eventually he attempts to travel back down into the cave to inform the two other men that their entire lives have been manipulated and fabricated. This piece of work, strangely enough, can be related to Thomas Jefferson’s Declaration of Independence. In the

Glaucon sees the issue from the perspective of personal gain or loss, while Plato sees it from outside that realm in the sphere of absolute truths. Clearly, an absolute truth is more viable and defensible than a personal interest. Justice is a higher order than personal advantage and as is associated with happiness whether one receives a reward for justice or not. The argument Glaucon raises against the absolutism of justice is exemplified in his story of the man who discovers a gold ring that allows him to become invisible. Glaucon proposes these two representative men as extreme examples of the two sides of the argument and suggests that their positions be examined after their death to see which was happier, based on the premise that the unjust man meted out injustice at will without ever suffering it himself, while the just man acted only justly but was treated unjustly himself. Glaucon takes this example to the extreme, with the just man being: “whipped...racked...bound; he'll have both his eyes burned out; and at the end, when he has undergone every sort of evil, he'll be crucified and know that one shouldn't wish to be, but to seem to be, just” (39). Glaucon sets these two men at extremes to prove his point-that happiness does not come from being

In Plato's Republic, the great philosopher describes what is needed to achieve a perfect society. He addresses several subjects still debated in today's society, such as justice, gender roles, and the proper form of education. He discusses these issues through his main character, Socrates. Socrates, another well-known philosopher for his time, happens upon a group of men, and what begins as a modest question, leads into a series of debates, metaphors, and allegories. Perhaps the most discussed allegory in today's popular culture is the Allegory of the Cave. Over the past decade, several movies have mimicked the fantasy, the most profitable being the Matrix Trilogy. But what makes this story so fascinating? Through it, Plato attempts to map

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

As Plato puts it, everyone is in a cave where reality and perceptions are distorted. Plato states:

The Allegory deals with all of the aspects of Plato’s philosophical beliefs. One belief of

One without knowledge can only conform to a leader or the majority’s will. A man from a cave, who has experienced the taste of enlightenment, would never return to his former dwelling with the same ideals he left behind. Plato meticulously introduced this idea in his allegory comparing the enlightenment o knowledge to a man, who found light after only recognizing darkness since birth. Despite the pain light can induce to eyes adjusted to the pitch black cave, the man was happier in the light than in the dark. Knowledge can aid in overcoming pain to find ecstasy. Knowledge would then develop into wisdom that can educate future generations of one’s own thoughts and culture. Knowledge and wisdom are inevitable assets to

Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” examines the quest, responsibility, and cost of intellectual enlightenment. The story is of a man, being held prisoner since birth, being freed and learning that his perception of reality was inaccurate. He shared his discovery, which was met with contention and anger from the people in his society when he tried to relieve them of their ignorance. The group were all born prisoners in a cave where they could not see behind them, and only could hear the echoes, and see the shadows cast of people and items moving behind them. One day, the man was released and was forced to embark out of the dwelling to see that it was actual people and inanimate objects being reflected in front of them. After having difficulty

To begin, both “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury are pieces of literature that illustrate a symbolic scenario of human society, and the relationship between individual truths and reality. As they both share the same vital messages concerning society’s reactions to unfamiliar and new knowledge, both passages contain similar themes and characters. Comprising of universes that include people who are heavily influenced by physical and mental barriers, “Allegory of the Cave” and Fahrenheit 451 emphasize the importance of curiosity, insight, and radical perception.

The novel Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson has many themes that present themselves throughout the book. One such recurring theme is a search for truth. The characters in the book do not fully realize that they are searching for truth, but they do feel a vague, "indescribable thing" that pushes and prods their minds to actualize a higher plane of thought. This search for a higher plane by the characters of Winesburg nearly parallels another literary work of ancient Greek origin- Plato's "Allegory of the Cave," which is a portion of his famous writing "The Republic." I contend that the town of Winesburg is the equivalent of the Cave in Plato's

Plato’s “Myth of the Cave” and Carver’s Cathedral provide insight into parallel words. The protagonists in each story are trapped in a world of ignorance because each is comfortable in the dark, and fearful of what knowledge a light might bring. They are reluctant to venture into unfamiliar territory. Fortunately the narrator in the Cathedral is forced by circumstances to take a risk. This risk leads him into new world of insight and understanding.

“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 Plato's Republic, Glaucon is introduced to the reader as a man who loves honor, sex, and luxury. As The Republic progresses through books and Socrates' arguments of how and why these flaws make the soul unhappy began to piece together, Glaucon relates some of these cases to his own life, and begins to see how Socrates' line of reasoning makes more sense than his own. Once Glaucon comes to this realization, he embarks on a path of change on his outlook of what happiness is, and this change is evidenced by the way he responds during he and Socrates' discourse.

In his Allegory Plato shows us how a man ascends from the darkness of a cave to the light of the outside world. In this ascent Plato’s man passes through four distinct stages of cognition: from imagination, to belief, understanding, and finally knowledge.

The cave allegory also proves that the role of education is not to teach in the sense of feeding people information they do not have, but rather to shed light on things they already know. Education "isn't the craft of putting sight into the soul. Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn't turned the right way or looking where it ought to look, and it tries to redirect it properly." (2)