Summary Response to Plato's 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 Republic is considered to be one of Plato’s most storied legacies. Plato recorded many different philosophical ideals in his writings. Addressing a wide variety of topics from justice in book one, to knowledge, enlightenment, and the senses as he does in book seven. In his seventh book, when discussing the concept of knowledge, he is virtually addressing the cliché “seeing is believing”, while attempting to validate the roots of our knowledge. By his use of philosophical themes, Plato is able to further his points on enlightenment, knowledge, and education. In this allegory, the depictions of humans as they are chained, their only knowledge of the world is what is seen inside the cave. Plato considers what would happen to people

Second of all why Plato’s deductive reasoning is persuasive in his rhetorical allegory is because of when he explains what it would be like to release one of these prisoners and to force him out of the cave. Plato compares the light outside the cave as “intense”. The prisoner knows nothing about the world outside of the cave so everything is quite “bewildering” to him at first, but as time goes by he will become “accustomed”

In his essay, “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato, argues his idea of how to distinguish the reality and truth from that which is a falsehood. Most essentially, he finds it as important to enlighten others that may remain in that

Plato assumed the existence of human life in a cave. In his view, human beings are tied as prisoners in a cave and they could only see the shadows of real

In both works the prisoner who is imprisoned inside a world of illusions has not realized the true knowledge but only perceives truth as what they perceive with their senses. In the Allegory of the cave, the prisoner who escapes the cave finally knows what reality is and has the ability to differ between the illusion he saw before and what is true knowledge. The theme of Plato’s literary work is directly pointing towards humans and how humans are the prisoners that have no idea of what reality is, therefore “the prison is the world we see with our eyes; the light of the fire is like the power of the sun. And the climb upward out of the cave into the upper world is the ascent of the mind into the domain of true knowledge” (Stickney 12). The theme of the story presents the idea of how the prisoner (humans) escapes and he is enthralled by such reality, the prisoner (humans) would not accept and will deter to go back to the cave, “wouldn’t he rather endure anything than go back to thinking and living they did?”(Stickeny 12).

The point that is being made in the Allegory of the cave, is the fact that many of us only see things from one perspective. The way we see things is not always the reality of what it is. We as humans tend to rely on each other’s opinions instead of seeing our own reality. I think Plato is calling out humans and telling us we need to see things for ourselves to see the reality of things, we shouldn’t always agree or see things the same way as everyone

The allegory of the cave sums up the worldview of Plato. The prisoners in the cave represent the individuals who are fooled by the images they think are real. The man that is freed by the chains is the true philosopher who uses intellect to see the real world. For Plato the true philosopher is the right person to rule the world. A true philosopher is the only true person who can gain knowledge. The philosophers who were not corrupted or manipulated along the way have the just mind and are the only ones capable of gaining any

Greek philosopher Plato, student of Socrates, has been regarded for thousands of years as one of the greatest philosophers; with his work dating back to the fourth century. Since then, his work has been extensively studied and applied to modern day issues in representations and society. Accompanied by Socrates and his most acclaimed student, Aristotle, they have helped pave the way of the modern day structure of Western philosophy. Plato’s simile of the cave is a theory that Plato developed regarding the way that humans perceive things. In his theory, Plato identifies between those who mistake opinion for the truth and those who are omniscient to the real truth.

When we are born, we come into this world ignorant. As we grow older, we are to be educated. In terms of the cave, Plato’s version of education is to actually lead us out of the cave. However, if we refute the opportunity of learning, we become prisoners living in the cave. If we remain in the cave, all we know is that of the darkness, and the shadows from the flame.

Plato assumed the existence of human life in a cave. In his view, human beings are tied as prisoners in a cave and they could only see the shadows of real things

With both stories, we are facing similarities on how they see the world, even do they are written in two different point of views. With Plato, we have the people that think they're nothing else in life but what’s in the cave. To been stuck all their life chain to a wall facing nothing but the shadows that are passing by on the other side of the wall. As for example, during the story, it talks about men and once he has escaped the cave “he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive someone saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion” (Plato 889). In this passage, it talks about how people

Furthermore, after further consideration, I sense that there is a bit of an arrogant tone to this whole piece. It is discussed by Plato that those who are the best minds/founders of the state seem to have a duty to go out of the cave (as they are able due to the fact that they have an intellectual capacity capable of this) and gain knowledge, then come back into the cave and share this with the prisoners. This makes me think that Plato believes that only certain individuals are able to think and learn. Also it seems like he believes only certain people should be allowed to do this task and teach the rest of the "unintelligent" population so that maybe they too will be able to see and comprehend the light as well. Then it goes in to detail

In Republic, Plato (trans. 1968) relays his thoughts on learning through the perspective of Socrates, a greek philosopher. Socrates uses an allegory of a cave in order to explain how humans learn throughout the different stages of life and discovery. The allegory begins in the dark where a group of humans are bound in a sun deprived cave so that they can only look straight ahead towards a wall (Plato, trans. 1968). Unbenounced to them, there is a fire which casts shadows of statues of real entities found in nature. But because the prisoners can only see what is projected

To add on, Plato 's cave is seen in many forms of depictions. Individuals have given many definitions to what his allegory is portraying. In short, it is man in a cave with no view of the outside light and is set to have his life perceived by mere shadows. Morris explains, "The shadows are what the prisoners deem to be real, so they must stand for what we deem to be real" (418). Plato classifys the cave 's world as the "Lower World", meaning no act of wisdom is inside for all man knows is one place. Plato also classify 's the outside world as the "Upper World" as being the world of wisdom or enlightenment. As his allegory precedes, the man finds his way out and sees the "Upper World" first hand. When viewing what he does not know leads him to find that this is the truth and everyone in that cave should hear of it. Morris explains, "Because it is self-verifying, there will be