The Allegory Of The Cave

Plato illustrates the cave as “a cell down under the ground” filled with pitch darkness. Including, two people who never knew reality. Shackled to the chains onto a seat for the rest of their lives as they look at a wall of nothingness. Meanwhile, mesmerized while watching “the shadows of artefacts would constitute the only reality” these people

In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).

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.

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

Humankind is filled with individuals testing each other and competing with one another to be the greatest, ignoring the reality of life. In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato justifies this by displaying a parable that serves as a metaphor for life. This parable teaches the reader how people wish to remain in their comfort zones and disregard the truth. It portrays the struggle of facing different realities that alter the illusion of one's life. In the story, he described a group of prisoners chained inside a dark cave; their only source of light comes from a burning fire that is used to create shadows. These shadows display images that the prisoners each interpret as the reality; however, once one is released and is struck by the light, he

We first learn about Plato’s cave in book seven of the Republic. In his book, Plato describes a conversation he has with Socrates. He tells Socrates the story of some men who had lived their entire lives in a cave. These men knew nothing beyond what they could see on the cave wall. One day, a man is freed. At first he rejected his new found knowledge of the world but, once he accepted what he learned outside of the cave, he could never go back to his sheltered existence. The cave is an allegory, a story that has a hidden meaning. Plato is attempting to describe the difference between conventional opinion and getting educated. Plato says “compare the effect of education and of the lack of it” (Plato 175).

In his allegory of the cave, Plato describes a scenario in which chained-up prisoners in a cave understand the reality of their world by observing the shadows on a cave wall. Unable to turn around, what seems to be reality are but cast shadows of puppets meant to deceive the prisoners. In the allegory, a prisoner is released from his chains and allowed to leave the cave. On his way out, he sees the fire, he sees the puppets, and then he sees the sun. Blinded by the sunlight, he could only stare down to view the shadows cast onto the floor. He gradually looks up to see the reflections of objects and people in the water and then the objects and people themselves. Angered and aware of reality, the freed prisoner begins to understand illusion

Many individuals question human nature and how our society is created to find justice. “Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato, a Greek philosopher, was a dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates.. In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, depicts the idea that some people are seeing the truth to be “aching. People were born to be told things, which naturally believed is hard to know what is true. They are unable to see the reality and when told the truth, it would be hard for people to accept it any other way. As a result, people would exceed its limits to find the truth. Some may say this allegory, is the reflection of our world today .There are many representations that can be shown how this can be applied to how we live our everyday lives. One of

Plato, a student of Socrates, in his book “The Republic” wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped within a dark cave where they can only catch glimpses of

Allegory of the Cave, is a popular work of Plato. In the excerpt, Plato gives his take on what exactly does it mean to be in the “reality.” Throughout the excerpt, Socrates explains to Glaucon about a cave. The inhabitants of the cave have never seen the day of light. Literally. The people in the cave are prisoners, they are bounded by chains and shackles. They have no idea about the “real” world. The only thing they can see are shadows cast by the fire in the center of the cave. They believe these shadows are real, in truth, they are not. To me, I think the cave represents our mentality as human beings. We only know what is true because we were taught that it is. Not that we have pondered the thought of it really being that way, it's just because we learn by following. On the other

The cave allegory also proves that the role of education is not to teach in the sense of feeding people information they do not have, but rather to shed light on things they already know. Education "isn't the craft of putting sight into the soul. Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn't turned the right way or looking where it ought to look, and it tries to redirect it properly." (2)

It is the truth of all matters. However, most people find it difficult to face reality, and to accept the truth. The truth is much harsher than the appearance of things. This is evident in Plato’s “The Republic: Book VII,” where the story of “The Allegory of the Cave,” is presented (Plato and Slings). In this short segment, Plato discusses a small civilization of people living in caves.

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).

In his novel Being There, Jerzy Kosinski shows how present day culture has strayed away from the ideal society that Plato describes in his allegory of the cave. In his metaphor, Plato describes the different stages of life and education through the use of a cave. In the first level of the cave, Plato describes prisoners who are shackled and facing a blank wall. Behind them is a wall of fire with a partition that various objects are placed and manipulated by another group of people. These shadows are the only action that they ever see. They can only talk to the surrounding prisoners, and watch the puppet show on the wall in front of them. Naturally, the prisoners come to believe that the shadows on the wall in front of them are

Socrates describes people in a cave since birth, bound so they can only see what is in front of them. There are shadows and sounds that can be observed but the source is unknown. Socrates says in 515c, “…such men would hold that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things.” Their reality is limited by their experience. Then a prisoner is freed from the bonds and is forced to look at the fire and the statues that were used to cast the shadows on the walls. He is overwhelmed by the revelations and learns that the shadows were not the reality.