Plato’s “Allegory of The Cave” is a written dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, brother of Plato, in which Socrates exposes the lack of education in human nature by invoking the image of prisoners chained up and sitting in a dark cave. The prisoners, whom have been imprisoned in the cave since childhood, can only see straight ahead and are forced to watch dancing shadows on the cave wall which are created by a fire that sits below and behind them, never to see the sun or the outside world which in this allegory, represents the idea of good and being. Socrates goes on to say that the prisoners represent the vast majority of the human race and the puppeteers who control the shadows represent poets, lawgivers, etc. which guide the prisoners and can shape their thoughts and beliefs because the puppeteers control the shadows, which in turn, control the prisoners. Although in the Plato’s allegory, it is said that the “Sun” is the form of good and to see what the light shines upon and what it reveals is to be enlightened, I claim that experiencing the form of good itself is not what represents enlightenment but, it is the act, the journey in which one must take and experience to be …show more content…
And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?(REPUBLIC
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.
In Plato's “Allegory Of The Cave” he expresses that people are innately born with abilities like thinking and communicating, but their individual outlook on life is relative to their experiences in life; their educational awareness. Like the men chained in the “cave”, restricted to see only shadows of images cast by fire light and muffled echo sounds of voices; if one is restricted from experiencing new things, places or ideas, then in life their reality is limited to only the experiences they have had. The shadows the prisoners see on the wall are their reality not the actual objects that made the images. As our text “”Think” buy Judith A. Boss indicates, experience and facts we receive from additional resources is the basic level of thinking. Without continued facts and experiences, without education, our thinking is limited to our narrowed reality (shadows).
“Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light, or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye…” (Plato). In this quote from Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” an instance in which a person comes face to face with something that confounds them, it can be due to two factors. First, it could be that they are knowledgeable and are paying attention and go to seeing ignorance. Or it could be that they are not knowledgeable and are faced with veracity. A situation such as this takes place in Plato’s
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.
In the allegory written by Plato titled “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato discusses the concept of seeking knowledge and gaining wisdom. He uses a story of prisoners trapped into a cave to represent the confines of reality that humans are put into, and a lone prisoner exiting the cave to represent a philosopher seeking a greater understanding. Plato’s writing tells of the flaw that all humans share, which is the fact that we believe our perceptions to be the absolute, incontestable truth. It is this flaw that can easily affect our spiritual, educational, and political knowledge, hindering us from having a full grasp on actual reality beyond what we visually see. His rhetorical devices, tone, symbolism, and imagery all lend themselves to giving
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.
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 the highly popular animated film The Lego Movie, there are many similarities between it and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. In the movie, there many parts from the plot that directly relate to what was happening in the Allegory of the Cave. There is a lot of symbolism from both the movie and this idea by Plato. The movie uses the idea that when people are made to live a certain way they believe only what is told to them and what is in front of them.
Part I: In Plato’s allegory of the cave there are three areas. The first area in the cave is dark and is where the prisoners dwell. All they see are the shadows of the figures and hear the voices from the higher level in the cave. The third level is outside of the cave where the light of the sun is. Each area of the cave represents a level of reality according to Plato. The lower level of the cave is an allegory for where people, many times the majority, are dwelling in their own understandings of what is real. They only see the shadows or distortions of truths that are found in the higher levels of the cave. They do not question these distortions and therefore remain in the unenlightened darkness of what they believe to be true. This
In Plato’s allegory of the cave, these prisoners were chained facing a wall and could only see shadows cast on the cave’s wall by a fire that burned, out of sight, behind them. Already from Plato’s description the reader can derive that the prisoners have very limited knowledge, having lived in these surroundings they are ignorant to anything else. The allegory then continues with a description of a walkway on which models and shares of objects are displayed across. The shadows of these objects are what create the shadows on the cave walls. There are also echoes off the wall from the noised produced from the walkway. The prisoners would take the shadows and echoes to be real things and even took great pride in their eyesight and their interpretive abilities, yet they were looking at shadows, mere illusions.
In the story, "Plato's Allegory of the Cave", Plato discusses about the nature of reality. Plato depicts a conversation between his mentor, Socrates and his student, Glaucon, about a scenario of prisoners chained inside the cave since childhood. While, these prisoners are confined inside, objects are placed in front of the flames mimicked by puppeteers. This is the only thing that the prisoners experiences which mentally clouds with their only perception of reality. Further on, one of the prisoners is forcibly taken outside which makes the prisoner feel severe novelty upon things never before seen. Later, when this prisoner receives knowledge gathered outside the cave. He wishes to return back and mentioned what he seen to the others. Even
The significance of studying and discussing Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave helps the reader to understand that what Plato is saying in the chapter happens in the society today. Also, it helps us as readers to understand the purpose of this writing piece. The purpose of writing this piece is to show the roles the people can take in the real word. Those roles could be a prisoner, a puppet master, or a philosopher. Plato also wanted to show that what people see from their eyes is not always true. It can deceive them. Plato uses symbolism to prove this point.
Plato suggests in his Allegory of the Cave that life is entirely made of illusions and form. The story depicts a group of prisoners, who have spent a majority of their life chained within a cave and forget what the outside world looks like. Behind them, dim fire-light flickers across the cave and the shadows of passersby projects onto the walls. This leads the prisoners to believe life only consists of flat shapes; without depth. Eventually one prisoner escapes and catches a glimpse of the outside world for the first time in years.
In The Republic, basically the Allegory of the cave, Plato focuses on the fundamental concepts of philosophy through metaphysics. According to him, moral actions is a sign of intellectual awareness. His system of ideologies concerning knowledge is extensively related to his metaphysics. Consequently, awareness of reality and virtue results in possession of the original knowledge. In a more extensive approach, attaining enlightenment far from the physical nature into the metaphysical world increases the sense of an abstract reality.
Allegory is a literary device used by authors to enhance and also add meaning to their stories. It is a type of extended metaphor, and uses characters, places, objects and symbolism as the main devices with which the author attaches multiple meanings and purposes. By doing this it allows for multiple audiences to derive their own meaning and also have various interpretations. Allegories are designed so that they can effectively have a critique on a particular topic, but in a way that is not invective and can estrange readers. Despite this the critique is usually of a universal nature and so readers can apply the critique to their own context and lives, and thus gain a deeper understanding.