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Plato 's Simile Of The Cave

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Imagine living in a world of false impressions, of course how would know that they were living in a world of lies. They would probably believe that every action performed by their senses were true. Plato’s Simile of the Cave sheds light on this this idea which is also adapted by the 1999 movie by Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski, ‘The Matrix.’ Both works have allegorical meanings which explains how people are trapped by some sort of limitations they have which could also serve as a deterrent to their further understanding. This movie ‘The Matrix’ shares a common philosophical basis with Plato’s Simile of the Cave. First, Plato argues that the mind is susceptible to false ideas because of the limitations of our senses. This is shown in the conversation between Socrates, a speaker in his allegory, and Glaucon, the second speaker. Socrates explains to Glaucon that the prisoners in Plato’s metaphorical cave are bound to assume that the shadows thrown on the wall, by the fire, are real and that the objects held by the passers-by, walking along the road, belong to the shadows. “And so in every way they would believe that the shadows of the objects we mentioned were the whole truth.” (Plato, 26). Plato believes that the world perceived through our senses is not a real world, but a poor copy of it. This prisoners do not know that they are prisoners, which makes them to be completely unaware that the reality they know is false. In similar fashion, his claim shares a common

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