Plato's Allegory: Why Am I Here?

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.

Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.

Socrates points out that this allegory corresponds to the earlier discussion about the good. Hence, it relates to the analogy of the sun and the analogy of the divided line. Socrates describes analogy of the sun as "a child of the good and most similar to it". He begins with saying that there are things which we can see and feel (visible realm) and there is the good itself, something we can only think about (intelligible realm). He continues, saying that eyesight requires light in order for object to be seen. Light comes from the sun, hence, sun gives a possibility for objects to be seen. Socrates compares the relationship between sight and the sun to the intellect and the good. Good gives power to things that are known. So, just as sun enables

In the beginning, there is very little light. It is almost dusk, and the speaker describes the smell as “dark” (7). Towards the middle and end there are various lights: lanterns, lamplight, fireflies, lamp (9, 11, 13, 20). This change over time depicts the storyteller’s significance to the speaker, because she brought enlightenment to his life. In this poem, light is a metaphor for knowledge, while darkness is a metaphor for ignorance. At the end, the old wise storyteller, who is the embodiment of wisdom, “was the lamplight” (20). In contrast, the two boys, who are young and ignorant, are “in one shadow” (21). The juxtaposition of light with darkness shows that the speaker and storyteller are opposites in their insight. Additionally, it is strange that she is a light before them, yet they are still shadowed. What is blocking the light from them? This metaphor illustrates that it takes time for people to become sage like their elders. As the speaker says, adulthood is “childhood’s aftermath,” which means that the knowledge people gain in childhood will lead them to be wise adults such as the storyteller

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

"The Allegory of the Cave," by Plato, explains that people experience emotional and intellectual revelations throughout different stages in their lives. This excerpt, from his dialogue The Republic, is a conversation between a philosopher and his pupil. The argument made by this philosopher has been interpreted thousands of times across the world. My own interpretation of this allegory is simple enough as Plato expresses his thoughts as separate stages. The stages, very much like life, are represented by growing realizations and newfound "pains." Therefore, each stage in "The Allegory of the Cave" reveals the relation between the growth of the mind and age.

Plato’s “The Apology” takes places in Athens in 399 BC. Socrates, a natural philosopher, is put on trial and accused of failing to recognize the god of Athens, creating new deities, and corrupting the minds of the city youth. The Athenians, Anytus, Meletus, and Lycon fear that Socrates’ teachings lack respect for the legal customs and religious beliefs established in the city and could create a damaging effect on Athens’ community (Dan I.(n.d.). In this piece, Plato writes an account of Socrates’ speech attempting to defend himself. In this account, Socrates states that “An unexamined life is not worth living.” (Plato, n.d.). When saying this, Socrates claims that a person must examine themselves and determine the purpose of life, in order

Plato’s allegory of the cave, located in the 2nd edition of Discovering Your Vision and Voice, explains that people experience emotional and intellectual revelations throughout different stages in their lives. In this short story I believe Plato’s goal is to represent the way a philosopher gains knowledge. There are various types of knowledge explored throughout this story like the knowledge that we are told and expected to believe, and the one that is learned through personal experiences.

It seems to me that the attitudes Socrates, and that of the Brahmin can be best observed by looking at the secondary characters of the stories. Doing so we can see discover how Plato and Voltaire truly see their story’s hero.

The Allegory of the Cave is an allegory or metaphor used by Greek philosopher Plato (427-347 B.C.). Plato uses the Allegory of the Cave to represent the ascent from opinion to knowledge (Kranak, 2002) and ultimately enlightenment. For Plato, opinion was belief, hearsay, imagination and sense experience, for example, experiences that involve sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and feelings. Plato proposed that this type of empirical thinking was unreliable and fallacious (Dennick, 2008). In comparison, knowledge is justified true belief, belief or opinion that needs to be justified with evidence and logical reasoning (Daniel, 2003).

Greek philosopher Plato’s work “The Allegory of the Cave” depicts a group of people who, their entire lives, have been detained in a cave by chains which confine them to look at a wall and prevent them from being able to look behind them, where there is a fire casting shadows of all which walk by onto the wall. The prisoners believe in what they have seen and heard, they do not see the plethora of animals and people making the shadows, therefore the noise they hear comes from the shadows.

Plato's dialog titled Euthyphro documents a debate between Socrates and Euthyphro about true meaning of piety. In this paper I will explain how the concept of holiness develops in the dialog and why it takes a prominent position in the conversation. I will present the three definitions that Euthyphro uses in his response to Socrates and explain how Socrates rebuts each of Euthyphro's definitions. I will formulate my own argument as to what I think Socrates's goal is in this dialog. I will provide my own definition of piety while also creating a Socratic response of my definition. In conclusion, I will take on the role of Socrates and respond to my own definition as I think he would. Is there a valid definition on what it means to be holy? I believe that everyone has his or her own unique definition of holiness, which can be true to one person and untrue to another.

There once was a story of a girl set apart, for inside her she carried a great light, so great in fact was this light that all who came in contact with it were changed, however because of this great light shining within her she was forced to see the world as it was. From a young age she understood to be covered in a powerful darkness with all the evil and the hate which that entails.

When people hear the word light they often think of physical light, but the word light has many underlying interpretations and meanings. Whether in the form of wavelengths, the constant struggle of good versus evil, representing life, a guide, a force, or to describe speed, light is almost always a positive that often relates to a person being on the pathway to happiness. The many elements and meanings of light are illustrated in various biblical texts, shakespearean works, and many modern news articles.

After watching the video about Plato’s allegory I have came to know that there is a correlation between our semester studies and Plato’s allegory. I believe that everything that we learn at any level, it helps us to determine and understand the other knowledge, so my semester studies help me to understand the Plato’s allegory. By keeping in view the concepts that I have learned about Plato’s allegory I can say that the allegory of the cave has additionally allegorical significance since such a large number of typical proposals are utilized as a part of this writings. The dark cave symbolically proposes the contemporary universe of lack of awareness and the chained individuals symbolize ignorant individuals in this ignorant world. The raised divider symbolizes the impediment of our reasoning and the shadow symbolically propose the universe of tangible recognition