Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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.

This reinforces the idea that giving up his life is not sacrifice to him. Socrates values the truth, yet he knows that he does not have the truth. Socrates believes that dying is not a consequence for himself, but rather for the people of Athens. They can choose to listen to him now, or wait for someone else to come along again to challenge them. Therefore, Socrates can die, and would rather die because at least he has the chance to continue speaking after his death. To conclude, although Socrates’ death may have been voluntarily, it is not noble.

In the ‘The Allegory of the Cave’, Plato uses a philosophical situation to help us as the reader to examine our perception of life by what is around us. Plato uses such an abstract situation to show that we can mistake the information that we gain due to our position in a situation for truth.

In Plato’s Apology, the Oracle at Delphi asserted that Socrates is the wisest man of them all, Socrates was confused because he believed that wisdom is what you know is the only thing that you know and he claimed that he knows nothing. Socrates was aware that he was not the wisest of them but did not understand what they meant when they said he was the wisest “For surely he does not lie” (Plato Pg. 26). With great confusion Socrates would then try to challenge what the Oracle had said and proved him wrong. I agree with Socrates belief in wisdom and what wisdom is all about, because knowledge is acquired when you admit to yourself that you know nothing. That knowledge you have already obtain will be the only knowledge you can declare until you are than shared with new knowledge.

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

We first learn about Plato’s cave in book seven of the Republic. In his book, Plato describes a conversation he has with Socrates. He tells Socrates the story of some men who had lived their entire lives in a cave. These men knew nothing beyond what they could see on the cave wall. One day, a man is freed. At first he rejected his new found knowledge of the world but, once he accepted what he learned outside of the cave, he could never go back to his sheltered existence. The cave is an allegory, a story that has a hidden meaning. Plato is attempting to describe the difference between conventional opinion and getting educated. Plato says “compare the effect of education and of the lack of it” (Plato 175).

Plato's Allegory of the Cave uses many different examples of allegory, which can relate to individuals in society today. In today’s society many individuals are terrified to take risks and explore outside of their comfort zones. The hardest part of the experience is usually deciding whether or not we want to take that risk. The end results are usually worth the risk, in the sense that individuals will have no regrets.

What does it mean to have wisdom? Some may say to be wise is to have enough knowledge and good judgment to make well thought out life decisions. Wisdom is a common term mentioned throughout out the New Testament Epistles and the entire Bible. The Bible has a lot to say about wisdom and knowledge. It talks about ways to be wise and ways to be foolish. Through out the Bible there seems to be different types of wisdom and it is described in different ways. Analyzing all types of wisdom and knowledge will help us decide what the Bible means to be wise.

Aristotle sustains that wisdom consists in knowing the cause which made a material thing to be what it is. For Aristotle, wise people know more than just what something

This, I believe, is what Socrates viewed wisdom as in Plato’s Apology. While it can be inferred that Socrates viewed wisdom as humility, knowledge, and self-knowledge through his examinations of the politicians, poets, and craftsmen, this is not Socrates’ complete view of wisdom. The more comprehensive view Socrates held of wisdom lies in his belief

Socrates, in skepticism, began a search for those with a reputation of wisdom. After studying men and their knowledge, he reasoned that the only true wisdom consists in knowing that you know nothing. Although one may have extensive understanding in one area, there is way too much knowledge in the world to be contained by one man. Socrates stated, “I found that the men most in repute were all but the most foolish, and that some inferior men were really wiser and better” (Plato, 23). Those who believed that they knew it all could not be more ignorant, and those who admitted ignorance achieved the highest wisdom attainable on earth. Socrates accepted the idea that he, just like all men, contained very little or no wisdom at all. He was content with knowing this, and upon meeting others that lacked this philosophy, felt he was superior to them. He was unsure of the limitations the afterlife had on wisdom, but he was aware of it’s constraints on earth. This self awareness is what gifted him with the highest sense of enlightenment.

Wisdom is a concept that most people are interested in. As human beings, we want to learn how to receive wisdom, know how it affects us, and what wisdom really is. Many people throughout the years have pondered these questions and have come up with a variety of answers. However, answers to these questions can also be seen in the Bible through books that are defined as wisdom literature, or literature that gives thought to “universal, humanistic, and philosophical standpoints” (Dell 1). We can especially see these questions answered in unique ways through Job, Ecclesiastes, and Proverbs.

This quote from Elaine Heath and Larry Duggins' book "Missional.Monastic.Mainline." mentioned what I thought of as the quintessential definition of wisdom. Through effort and sacrifice, one can attain pearls of wisdom such as freedom can't be bought cheap, it's better to die with knowledge than to live in ignorance, and ignorance is bliss only for those whose minds are vacant of the veracity of facts.

In order to do this, he goes about Athens questioning those he believes to be wiser than him, including politicians, poets, and craftsmen. Upon this questioning, he discovers that even those perceived as the wisest actually know far less than one would expect. Even the craftsmen, who have much practical wisdom in their respective fields, see their success as merely a tribute to their vast knowledge of many subjects. This, Socrates claims, is not true wisdom. Human wisdom can be described as the acknowledgement and acceptance that one does not know everything, nor is one capable of knowing everything. This, however, does not mean that people should sit idly by, never pursuing wisdom, for it is still vital to the attainment of a good life, which should be the ultimate goal of mankind.

Wisdom is a very abstract term for a great deal of people and for the purpose of this paper it is important to turn to Socrates himself to understand. There a few passages which can be referred to obtain a define idea of what wisdom is to Socrates. In passage 21d Socrates describes a resulting thought about wisdom on his journey to prove that he is not wise, “Well, I am certainly wiser than this man. It is only too likely that neither of us has any knowledge to boast of, but he thinks that he knows something which he does not know, whereas I am quite conscious of my ignorance. At any rate it seems