Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

“You don’t change the world with the ideas in your mind, but with the conviction in your heart.”

Once the person is outside of the cave they are blind and when they finally are able to see, they do not believe the outside world to be real. At first they can only see shadows and then eventually they are able to differentiate objects from one another. Lastly, the person is able to look at the sun itself. The sun represents good and now the person knows the truth. The cave is an illusion and the games they played in there were pointless.

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

Make a change. ”(Wong) People should not just complain instead they should start to act and do what is right for the sake of our country. People should work together to change our future, to make it better for them to live at

In chapter 7 of Plato's book The Republic, Socrates describes the importance and benefits of education and philosophy. He makes specific points and examples to show that without growing humanity would suffer. Also, Socrates also shows how one man learning can change a whole group of people. Socrates proves that education opens the eyes of many and he does that by using the allegory of the cave. Socrates describes the allegory of the cave by describing a story about a group of prisoners that have lived in a dark cave their whole lives.

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).

The truth can be blinding and painful to those who live in lies. For “will they not have pain in their eyes” (685), upon the realization that what they believe to be correct was wrong. Will this not send them into aggressive states creating “civil and domestic broils” (689) that will shake the foundation of our world. Those who see the truth may predict this outcome and remain silent. Who wants to drag their brothers into the storm? Who wants to watch the world burn? Those who know the truth must consider these things. They must consider if the truth is worth it. The truth might not just remove the people from the cave, but it may remove the cave from the earth and overwhelms the people inside with an explosion of oppressing light. This oppressive truth will do no help, but instead will crush the spirit of man and overwhelm the

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave suggests that people are just prisoners in a cave and the as others and objects periodically pass by the prisoner can only see the shadows which eventually become their reality. Since that is all that they know the shadows are their truth and what is real. Every so often one of the prisoners freed and is now able to go and venture out in the world and to their surprise finds that the shadows are not what was real. When they return to the cave to enlighten their fellow prisoners they are usually met with hostile responses.

Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” represents how people identify and process everything around us. People rely on their immediate senses to understand and make their own opinion of reality. We have to touch, hear, or smell something in order to believe it. Our biggest misconception come from our sight. The posters and advertisements are real but it does not mean that what’s in them is real as well. The models on the advertisements we know are real but the photo may not be real. There are many tools they use to make the model look exactly how we think she should look. In reality it took a lot of work and effort to make that image seem real. Reality is we all have flaws, but flaws are not advertised. Perfection appears to be reality and the

Plato’s allegory of the cave speaks about prisoners who have been in a cave for all of their lives and know nothing of the outside world. These prisoners’ heads, necks, and feet have been bound in such a way that they cannot move to look sideways or backward (Duarte). Therefore, they are forced to look forward. Behind them is a fire and past the fire is a walkway where people walk. As a result, the prisoners can see the shadows of the activity going on behind them, which is what they believe to be the reality (Duarte).

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’s Allegory of the Cave is a story that seeks to highlight the transformative power of education and the process of pursuing the truth on society. It shows how Plato saw reality and people’s relationship to perception and truth. In the myth, there is a cave with a long passageway leading into a main chamber. Within the cave are people seated and chained to their positions, forced to look only at the cave wall. Behind them is a fire and other beings who manipulate objects in order to cast shadows on the wall for the prisoners.

In this allegory, Plato displays a hypothetical situation of Socrates speaking with Glaucon about the importance of knowledge and how a lack of it can severely affect a person or group of people. He does this by describing prisoners in a cave whose necks and legs are fettered making them unable to move. There is a wall behind them with a fire behind that. Things are moved in between the fire and the wall so shadows are cast on the wall the prisoners are facing. Since the prisoners only see the shadows, that is what they view as real.

When there’s a problem in society taking action is imperative to resolving it. Without taking action, the problem will continue and could spiral out of control. It’s common for people to have the mindset that it’s up to others to take action, or that they won’t make a difference. However, the reality is that the ones who can get past this mindset are the ones who eventually change the world. Lack of action is worse than most negative traits, such as greed and overconfidence, because it’s possible to reduce these negative traits that are plaguing our society by taking action.

One step at a time and anyone can change in the world for the better. Everyone feels as if we're all only one person and one person cannot make that much of a difference in such a big world with so many problems to be solved, but they're wrong. Change does begin with one person. Then, that one person invites others to join the fight to make a change. Take doctors for an example, a doctor wants to help people when they’re sick and hurting. Also, doctors have learned to cure lot’s of sickness impacting people’s lives daily, that’s making a difference isn’t it? Doctors’ seek to improve the health of others, “We found that, on average, in the course of their career, a doctor in the UK will enable their patients to live an extra combined 140 years of healthy life, either by extending their lifespans or by improving their overall health.”(“How Much Good Can One Person Do? Here’s What the Evidence Says. “ 80,000 Hours. Web. 14 Apr. 2017.) For an example, another person that made a change was Rosa Parks. Parks was born in 1913 in Tuskegee, Alabama, this courageous women stood up to establish the refusal of giving up her seat on the bus to a white passenger on an Alabama bus. The city later on lifted the law requiring segregation on public buses. This action taken by Rosa Parks helped launch the civil rights movement. Despite those who argue that one person cannot make a difference, there are thousands of “one person’s” who are changing the world and the lives of those in