Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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 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.

On the surface of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” it is just a simple piece, but the main purpose of the piece is to explain people living in a world of face value and having individuals break free from the main idea to create a new sense of what the world is truly about. In here, Plato uses the writing style of allegory to encompass the use of imagery and symbolism to explain his purpose. He also uses very clever dialogue with constant repetition to represent a bigger idea about the philosophy with chained up people living in a cave of shadows.

In Plato's “The Cave” shows us a group of prisoners chained to face a wall. A fire behind them casts shadows on the wall their facing of a variety of different things however they can not see what they truly are. The prisoners only reality is the shadows and the sound they associate with these shadows. They truly have no understanding of what happening other than what they see on the wall and what they hear. This distorted view of the world

When the prisoner turns his head towards the light of the fire his eyes hurt him and he is confused because he is unable to see the objects of the shadows he had been subjected to his entire life. It is because of this pain and confusion that the prisoner wishes to return to the life that he is accustomed to, and the reality he knows, the world of the shadows. We are asked to envision the stubbornness displayed by this prisoner to leave the world of the shadows, a stubbornness which causes him to be dragged into the sunlight. Upon seeing the light of the sun the prisoner is temporarily blinded, unable to see anything around him, blinding him more than when he was a prisoner of the cave. Eventually the prisoner’s vision adjusts and he is able to see more clearly. His mind will first be able to recognize the shadows, then moving on to reflections of objects in the water, and lastly the objects themselves. This new sight leads the prisoner to question the colours and objects around him. He questions what it is that causes him to being able to see all the things he can, compared to only seeing poor reflections of objects in the cave. The prisoner eventually concludes that it is the sun which illuminates all around him and is the source of his sight.

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

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

In the cave, prisoners are faced towards a wall, never seeing anything else but that wall. Their only understanding of the world is what they see in front of them. Behind them, books and other objects are held up, creating a shadow of these objects on the wall. To the prisoners, the shadow of the books and objects are the actual form of the objects. They do not realized that those shadows are not the real object.

The prisoner whom is released is forced to look back at the fire and statues which has made the shadows that made what he perceived as the truth. This is analogous to our world and the media in which we are exposed to every day. It seems like today social media and giant corporations

If someone were to break free, they would see that the shadows are the effect of people dancing around a fire. If they dared to venture even further then they would eventually find there way out of the cave and see the sun, the ultimate truth, for the first time. The allegory may become more proximal and accessible when compared to todays pop culture, blockbuster hit, The Matrix. Plato's prisoners become the people trapped inside the matrix, ignorant of the truth and content with the illusionary life around them.

In the "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato, it represents a metaphor which is to contrast the way in which we as a society, perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the opinion that all we perceive are imperfect "reflections" of our everyday life, which represent truth and reality. In his story, Plato establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. There are two important components to the story; the fictional metaphor of the prisoners, and the opinion in that the allegory is supposed to represent life in society. In section 514a-520a of the Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy, the story takes place as a conversation between Socrates and Plato’s brother, Glaucon.

One of the prisoners is released from his fetters and is turned to face the other way. The man can now see the actual objects now instead of the shadows he has been looking at for his entire life. Even after being

The allegory of the cave is described as a prison that holds three men as captives. These men are tied down by their limbs and heads, disabling them from seeing anything but the shadows right in front of them. These prisoners have been in this cave their whole lives and have never seen the outside world. The connotations of the cave serve as a metaphor for humanities flawed perception of the world. The ignorance of man is the result of believing that all

The philosopher and mathematician Plato, who established the first learning institution, the Academy in Athens, wrote “Allegory of the Cave”. He is considered one of the most fundamental contributors of his time to both science and philosophy. Socrates, Plato’s mentor, who is conversing with Plato’s brother Glaucon, narrates the tale. Plato uses symbolism throughout the story: chained prisoners represent ignorance and an escaping prisoner represents finding knowledge or truth. Socrates states in the beginning that he wants to “show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened” (211).

We live in a material world where there’s only half interpretation of the true form of everything. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, takes place in a dark cave where prisoners are chained up having a restriction of only being able to experience the shadows of objects that walk on a raised way between the cave and a fire that is burning behind them. He is trying to prove that there is more to the world than what we are raised to believe. With the use of symbolism we are able to interpret that the outside of