Have you ever judged a person, an object, or even a place by what it looks like on the outside? Or maybe you have judged all of that just by what someone else has told you. Everyone in this world has either judged someone or something in their lifetime or has been judged. Many people out there in the world also believe they know many things and have tried to get the point across to someone and well, they just don’t believe them in any way. They believe there point of view is more right than the other persons and sometimes that can get a little out of hand, depending on who you are dealing with. I guess the major point in all this is to never judge a book by its cover, always learn yourself. In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, there are these prisoners that live in a cave and have never seen any natural sunlight. They can only see shadows of things displayed on the wall by the light coming from the fire. The prisoners get happy and interested by the shadows they see. The shadows could be of humans, objects, animals, or even plants. They see them as real, whereas, we see them as just shadows. One day, a prisoner goes out into the real world. He is blinded by the sunlight, so after his eyes adjust, he realizes that the shadows that were being shown in the cave aren’t actually real and that all the real objects are outside of the cave. Objects like plants, colors of what the animals look like, animals, tree, and even stars. Plato puts it as, “Previously he had been looking
In Plato's Cave, the prisoners are tied down with chains, hand, and foot under bondage. In fact they have been there since their childhood, which much like matrix people are seen as in reality being bound within a pad whereby they are feed images/illusions which keep them in a dreamlike state and they have been in this bondage by virtue of the virtual reality pads in the fields since their youth and like the allegory of the Cave they are completely unaware of such a predicament since in regards to the Cave they have become conditioned to the shadows that dance upon the wall and do not see the true forms of which the shadow is a mere non-substantial pattern of. In the Matrix, within the person of the virtual world, it is a non-substantial pattern of the world, it is reflective of the real world, it is a shadow in its form and nature being a simulation of the world at a particular point in history. Like the prisoners in the cave, those who are prisoners in the system of a matrix are held in their calm state by reason of the illusion that stimulates them and tricks them into remaining asleep or rather into being ignorant of the fact that they are prisoners in pads so the machines can feed on their bio-energy. The shadows on the wall which are reflective is to keep the prisoners on the Cave unaware of the fact that they are prisoners, that they are under bondage and have never truly seen life outside of the Cave. The shadows on the walls are by puppets, perchance puppeteers. They could be seen as the agents, whom within the Matrix being programs are to maintain that the humans asleep in the matrix remain in their comatose state, they are to support the illusion, by keeping man actively ignorant of what is truly happening, so they never wake up. The puppeteers of the puppets which are seen on the wall to keep the mind of the prisoners stimulated so they never realize that they are chained, and only have a vision that is straightforward, which is basically saying their minds are only subjected to a single perspective and they are blind to the degree of seeing within other perspectives, broader perspectives and this in and of itself is a limitation.
The Allegory of the Cave, also know as The Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave or Parable of the Cave is presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work “The Republic “ as a theory concerning the perceptions of human kind and compares the effects of education to the lack of education on our observations. The passage is written as dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his teacher Socrates.
In Plato’s allegory, he begins with a set of three people, prisoners of the cave that have never seen anything other than what the cave and their binding allows. “The prisoners are tied to some rocks, their arms and legs bound and their head is tied so that they cannot look at anything but the stonewall in front of them” ("The Simile of the Cave." Republic, 1974). What they are able to see is shadows of a fire and those people or animals- free to the
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.
The stages of Plato’s “cave journey” begin with people stuck in a dark cave. They are chained from birth, unable to move their bodies and can only see straight ahead. A fire behind them creates the shadows of objects being flashed on a wall in front of them. They have never seen the real objects, so they believe the shadows of the objects to be real. The people stuck in the cave begin a guessing game; trying to guess which objects will appear next, and whoever guess correctly would be praised by the others. At the mouth of the cave there is a glimmer of light, and the possibility of life outside the cave.
Imagery used by Plato as part of his writing style of allegory examines the shadows of the cave as ideas offered at surface level. Plato is showing people are there to believe what is given to them because they do not know anything else to be true. The shadows are explained, as “truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (Plato 450). Shadows are a brilliant use of imagery because they resemble something dark, indescribable, and hard to recognize. This helps support Plato’s argument because the truth can only be seen at the basic level without any complex details; it is just known to be true. His philosophy is that people can only see beyond the surface if they have to capability to do so and believe, what others think is crazy.
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
In his allegory of the cave, Plato describes a scenario in which chained-up prisoners in a cave understand the reality of their world by observing the shadows on a cave wall. Unable to turn around, what seems to be reality are but cast shadows of puppets meant to deceive the prisoners. In the allegory, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to leave the cave. On his way out, he sees the fire, he sees the puppets, and then he sees the sun. Blinded by the sunlight, he could only stare down to view the shadows cast onto the floor. He gradually looks up to see the reflections of objects and people in the water and then the objects and people themselves. Angered and aware of reality, the freed prisoner begins to understand illusion
One of Plato’s more famous writings, The Allegory of the Cave, Plato outlines the story of a man who breaks free of his constraints and comes to learn of new ideas and levels of thought that exist outside of the human level of thinking. However, after having learned so many new concepts, he returns to his fellow beings and attempts to reveal his findings but is rejected and threatened with death. This dialogue is an apparent reference to his teacher’s theories in philosophy and his ultimate demise for his beliefs but is also a relation to the theory of the Divided Line. This essay will analyze major points in The Allegory of the Cave and see how it relates to the Theory of the Divided Line. Also, this
In Plato’s essay, “Allegory of The Cave” Plato creates a story about three prisoners in a cave, through this he further makes his point that without knowledge our view of the truth is askew. Plato explains that the three hostages have been shackled in the dark cave their whole lives unable to see the real world. The only piece of actuality they can see are shadows of people crossing in front of the opening of the cave. These figures can drive anyone insane without having any real truth to what the images could be. Without any awareness of the real world just outside of the cave they are forced to adapt and therefore accept their own reality. Plato goes on to say that, “the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (122). The obscurities are significant because they are the only apprehension the prisoners have, they have nothing to compare it to. The actuality of it to the captives is something other than the truth would be outside of the cave. The forms on the wall are only just shadows, but to them that is everything they have ever known. Plato through his legend portrays
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” several men have been imprisoned their entire lives with a chain around their necks so they are unable to move their heads, while shadows are displayed on the wall in front of them as the real object is concealed from them. These men are ignorant of the real world because they have no idea that there is something other than the reality shown in front of them, so they easily accept the truth in front of them. However, once a caveman escaped from the false reality, he would discover that there is in fact, the true reality that has been concealed from him, and this discovery makes him awed and he becomes excited to return to the cave to tell the other prisoners of this information. Sadly, the prisoners don't
An initial perception of Plato's parable "Allegory of the Cave" can be somewhat vague or ambiguous which can make the reading experience a little intimidating at first. To receive a comprehensive awareness of its content, an analytical approach is recommended. The narrator is Socrates, Plato's mentor. It appears that Plato has been greatly intrigued by his teacher. Plato recorded this dialogue between Socrates, his teacher and Glaucon, his older brother.
The Allegory of the Cave by Plato is an article about the lack of awareness of humanity and is caused by the idea of the unknown. I think some people are quick to assume based on what they see or think and do not try to figure out the actual facts. I truthfully feel that it is unjust to not be certain about factual events and base your opinion on close-minded knowledge to what only seems right to you. Those prisoners who suffered and were shackled only relied on the shadows that they had seen with nothing to relate it to realistically. This lend them to only draw close to the items that seemed familiar without even trying to learn or understand the other objects. You can apply that to right now situations.
The “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato represents the differences in the way we perceive reality and what we believe is real. In his story, Plato starts by saying that in a cave, there are prisoners chained down and are forced to look at a wall. The prisoners are unable to turn their heads to see what is going on behind them and are completely bound to the floor. Behind the prisoners, puppeteers hide and cast shadows on the wall in line with the prisoners’ sight, thus giving the prisoners their only sense of reality. What happens in the passage is not told from the prisoners’ point of view but is actually a conversation held between Socrates and Glaucon (Plato’s brother).
French feminist and philosopher Luce Irigaray explores Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in her publication Speculum of the Other Woman. Plato describes humans that are being held captive in such a manner that they cannot experience or see the real world. They cannot see pure light but rather shadows; the light of reason is detained by shackles. His story is used by Socrates to portray the nature of thought and perception and the lack of truth or reality. Irigaray’s role is to understand and utilize Plato’s allegory to push the agenda of her book.