Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

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.

The "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the basic opinion that all we perceive are imperfect "reflections" of the ultimate Forms, which subsequently 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. In "Allegory of the Cave" there there are two elements to the story; the fictional metaphor of the prisoners, and the philosophical opinion in that the allegory is supposed to represent, hence presenting us with the allegory itself.

Plato’s allegory of the cave, located in Book VII of The Republic is one of the most famous allegories in which he has created. This simile touches base on a number of philosophical ideas which Plato developed over the progression of The Republic (Plato, G.M.A Grube, 1993), the most noticeable being the dividing line. The dividing line is the point between the world of ideas where we live and the world of the forms which is in the heavens. This allegory of the cave helps people understand the theory on which philosophy is based. It is also in this Book where the education of the guardians is outlined.

This illusion had sounds and echoes of real words and voices. Socrates was described in the dialog as very brave and different he even informed other prisoners that the cave was a prison house to capture their souls. And that there is more to gain outside of the cave. According to Socrates none of the prisoners wanted overcome the cave and to be free they were fed and had no idea of the outside

The second stage of the Allegory of the Cave consists of the process leading up to enlightenment. Plato represents the difficulties of leaving a comfortable reality where you are content with your own ideas by comparing it to the harshness of a flickering flame. The bright light of the fire that you are newly being exposed to after being held in the dark for so long can be painful, and hard to cope with or understand. The journey from ignorance to a better understanding can be confusing. As humans, we naturally don’t want to be forced to question our own ideas and the things we know to be true, but it is this uncomfortable, driving force that can lead us out of our own contentment and onto the path of better understanding. Plato so eloquently describes this challenging journey by comparing it to that of a prisoner being forced to visually take in all of this new information that he had not previously been exposed to. It takes a great deal of strength to be able to challenge the world around you and develop your own ideas, rather than taking everything around you in on a surface value.

Plato who was a Greek philosopher was born around the year 428 BCE, where he was known for opening an academy. The academy was considered the first university in the western world. In “The Allegory of the Cave”, three prisoners were tied up and could only see the shadows that reflected from the wall. They have been living in the same cave as prisoner for practically there whole life. The shad`ows represent things that are believed to be true. One prisoner got free and experienced the reality of the world but the other prisoners just laugh at him when he comes back. Plato is telling people In “The Allegory of the Cave”, the rhetorical appeal is a metaphor of the sun and symbolism.

Plato is known to many as one of the most influential and greatest philosophers to have lived. Plato represents his idea of reality and the truth about what we perceive through one of his famous writings, “The Allegory of the Cave”. The philosophical writing is in the form of an allegory, which is “a story in which the characters and situations actually represent people and situations in another context”(Pg. 448). In the story, Plato uses the technique of creating a conversation between his teacher Socrates and his brother Glaucon.

In the story, the allegory of the cave, Plato expresses human life thru 3 phases of which a person goes through, from a philosophy stand point. He starts out in part one introducing the cave or the habitat of which a person is used to being at. Part two describes how people rise from the darkness and realizes the circumstances that they face, as Plato describes it as freedom. Part three goes into depth about how returning after being freed from the cave causes people to envy you without them understanding why things happened.

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.

Plato’s allegory of the cave has a simple premise. People chained down, watching shadows in a cave, while the way out is hard to reach. But the simple premise has much deeper meaning. One of the reasons that Plato’s allegory of the cave has been so well received throughout history is that humans are always seeking the truth, mich like the human’s who escape the cave in the allegory. The allegory can be seen as a metaphor for many situations, but for my purposes we will use a very generic explanation of the cave.

Many would wonder if Plato’s writings was Socrates thoughts and questions. The excerpt from The Republic which is one of the famous pieces of philosophy is Socrates offering an image of enlightenment. The Allegory of the Cave is a metaphor for how people experience situations and how we relate to them. This could be with education, politics, and many other things.

I feel what Plato in is describing in " The Allegory of the Cave" is how mankind tend to live within our own narrow view of life,which he represents as the cave. The shadows within the cave represent our distorted views of reality and symbolic of the intellectual standard of clarity, because the distorted view of events clouds our perception of events as they occur. The prisoners chained within the cave represent each of us as we go through and face the challenges of life. Plato, describes chains that restrict their movements which represent the self imposed restrictions that each of us place upon ourselves that create narrow views of perception on the events of our life as they occur daily and are symbolic of the intellectual standard

The allegory of the cave gives a description of Plato’s theory of forms (being and becoming) which includes “the divided line” and “the simile of the sun”. Plato’s allegory talks about prisoners that have been kept in a cave since childhood. Throughout their entire life they have been restricted from natural light, while chained to a wall without being able to move or look around them. Since the prisoners have been in this state for so long, they know nothing else. We can see hear that Plato refers to individuals that lack knowledge due to the surroundings they have lived in their entire life, and as a result they are ignorant to anything else. Therefore, as prisoners they have been trapped into living a life restricted from knowledge.

The man ran up the hill towards the light and the end of the cave where he was temporarily blinded because he was used to the darkness inside of the cave. Of course this is all very confusing to him and maybe even angers him because he does not understand what he is seeing. Eventually this man will gain knowledge of the world and everything in it, from the shadows of the objects he saw on the wall of the cave all the way up to how the sun helps the earth. He will see that was he was made to see and understand was not reality but just was he was made to believe. This freed man now pities the other prisoners that are still inside the cave because he realizes how wrong they were about everything they know. Plato describes how if the freed prisoner were to go back to the cave and tell the others what he has seen that they would criticize him, laugh at him and tell him he would have been better off if he had never escaped. They even go as far to say that if another person were to be released that they should be caught and killed so as to not follow the same fate as the released prisoner.

The Allegory of the Cave is one of Greek philosopher Plato’s most known pieces that he has ever written. It is an allegory, where humans are characterised, and been portrayed as being imprisoned by their bodies and what they perceive is only by sight. In the allegory of the cave Plato wanted to show how true reality is not always what it seems. A group of prisoners were chained up in a cave since their childhood; each prisoner was chained to each other by their necks, and ankles. They are not able to move, and when they did it caused pain, so they were forced to sit and stare, at a blank wall while they were in the cave. Behind the prisoners there was a fire however the prisoners could not see the fire but between the prisoners and the fire