Plato's Allegory

Coming to college, I was eager to formally learn more about philosophy. As we began to study works of Plato, I found the Allegory of the Cave to be especially interesting. The thought of this specific concept lingered with me for a while as I had little time to stop and think about it. One night however, I could do some deep thinking and began unlocking a great door whose key was given to me by Plato’s allegory.

In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses a vast spectrum of imagery to explain ones descent from the cave to the light. While Plato uses this Allegory to explain his point through Socrates to Glaucon. This allegory has many different meanings. The Allegory can be used in many different ways, from religion to politics to ones own intellectual enlightenment, or it can be interpreted as the blinded person in a colt like reality. Are we all prisoners in a world that is forced on us through the media? How do we really know that we are not just pawns in some one’s chess game. What meaning was Plato trying to introduce to Glaucon? This cave can represent many aspects in the world. And the prisoners can be any one. The

a. Background information: The Metaphor of the Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is to show the difference in which we perceive and believe in what is real. This essay would be about Plato Allegory and what is happening nowadays with fake news.

An allegory is a kind of story in which writer intends a second meaning to be read beneath the surface story. One of the most important allegories ever to be gifted to humankind is Allegory of the Cave. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most potent and pregnant of allegories that describe human condition in both its fallen and risen states. The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. It is also known as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave, or the Parable of the Cave. It is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon at the beginning of Book VII of The Republic.

Analogies show up frequently throughout “Allegory of the Cave”. One example includes the analogy of the shadow. The shadows are forms of figures that the prisoners think are real; they are actually representing the misinterpretations of the materialistic world. “The truth would literally be nothing but the shadows of the images (Plato 293).” The sun is also an important analogy. “the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows (Plato 293).” The sun represents being able to see the realities of the world. Plato also uses direct address throughout the story more than once. He speaks to another character about his thoughts for the duration of this piece. “But is not this unjust? He said; ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better (Plato 298)?” This is one of many occurrences of a rhetorical question during “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato also exaggerates and drags on about the subject to help covey his point. Many of the paragraphs in “Allegory of the cave” are based on one of Plato’s opinions. Making the point drag on after the point has already been made, this is known as an over statement. Plato uses numerous rhetorical devices to strengthen his essay and persuade the audience of his points. He gives more depth to the story by using analogies. Analogies help make his essay more interesting instead of just

In Plato’s allegory, a group of men are held as prisoners in an underground chamber. In the chamber there is no light nor happiness. The men are only allowed to look one way and that is forward. For years, their scenery has been a dark wall with shadows from the objects or people that are behind them. They have never experienced the beauty of nature or the warmth of the sun’s rays. What crime have these men committed that forced them to face such a terrible fate? They are used to being in the dark, that when one man is set free he is amazed by what he sees outside of the chamber. The bright light blinds him and once he faces reality, it slaps him right across the face. He feels sorry for the men in the chamber. He feels sorry that they cannot

In this essay, the connection between "Allegory of the Cave by Plato's" and "The City of God by Augustine" will be discovered. The allegory of the cave focuses on human beings believing they're seeing "reality" but they're only seeing shadows, reflections, and distortions. This story also asserts in an allegorical sense how we as human beings are "chained as prisoners" so we never really see how things truly are. Also, the allegory of the cave talks about the enlightened stage and how seeing the light takes a grueling training process and the enlightened expose the falsehood of "common sense." The city of god touches on believing in false Gods/prophets. This story also talks about shunning devils from society and allowing the Christian faith to enter inner life. Lastly, Augustine warns not to listen to people who slander Christ and refuse to see the error of their ways. The connection in the stories is that the people in both time periods believe in falsehoods rather than being in tune with reality/the truth.

Additionally escaping from the cave of ignorance and error is the central message of the allegory. Yet the metaphorical aspects of the parable are less comprehensible and like all narratives are subject to interpretation. Yet despite this upon examining the symbolism from the perspective of Platonic philosophy it is can be speculated that the cave is the day to day world of perceptual experience. While the other features of the allegory such as the journey out of the cave and seeing the sun being respectively representing insight and enlightenment into the true nature of reality.

Summarize Plato’s Allegory of the Cave article (be sure to include how it describes or relates to the human condition)

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato talks of men chained inside of a cave, prisoners. He describes how they perceive the world, and the truth of what they see. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave correlates to today’s society because the prisoners in the cave represent the average people of modern times.

In the Allegory “...the prison-house is the world of sight..” (Plato, 3), meaning that it is the visible world that we are able to perceive with our sense of sight. The prisoners are human beings under the control of deception, and the deceivers or “puppeteers”, are the eloquent speakers and the mass media. The Allegory starts out with prisoners chained up in an underground den, and an army of masters misleading their notion about the world. Through mute images and spoken shadows they present the prisoners with a distraction to keep them oblivious to the world beyond the cave. Their sun is but a mere fire that is used as light to cast the shadows, and their problems don’t surpass that of who can name the shadows first. In this controlled atmosphere, a prisoners biggest fear is to be let out of the cave. Much like our fear today, which is to be taken out of our natural

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes a cave where prisoners are chained by their legs and necks. Since their motions are restricted, they can only see what is directly in front of them. By deciphering the images that are reflected on the wall in front of them; they can only imagine the outside world and create their own reality. A prisoner is released to the outside world and realizes that the items that he and the other prisoners had deciphered in the cave were only illusions. Once outside the cave, the prisoner sees the beautiful world and is not going to want to return to the cave. Plato compares the cave dwellers to men lacking education and are not fit to preside over the city. They are without a sense of purpose or duty.

Allegory of the Cave was written by the author Plato. The story was written during the time of the Greek empire as Plato was a Greek philosopher himself. The target audience of this story are students and teachers who could carefully analyze the the 2 meaning this story is presenting. The sole purpose of the Allegory of the Cave is to show what will happen when the ignorant are shown what reality is really like. The purpose of this story is to show the process of becoming enlightened.

Plato was an amazing author. In his seventh book, The Republic Plato talks about the allegory that distinguish the appearance of reality. The question is do we see what is not right in front of your faces?

The allegory of all allegories, The Cave, describes the World as dark as a cave, where human beings are trapped as prisoners, with nothing but shadows displayed on a wall for their experiences of the world. The allegory of the cave, according to Heidegger, is an illustration to the process of the paideia. Heidegger begins “Plato’s Doctrine of Truth” by providing his translation of The Cave. He does this to introduce his own terms and interpretations of the text.