The Allegory of the Cave by Plato
"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.
The first stage of the excerpt,
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Although, when they do encounter new experiences, they sometimes learn that the experience has caused them great pain. In addition, teenagers may change their vision of life. Usually teens become hardened and more used to pain; they become more familiar with the real world. Even though many teenagers feel they have experienced a great deal of pain and think they know it all, they have not witnessed an extremely harsh life until completely on their own.
Adult life is what Plato intends to symbolize in the next stage, when the people are forced to see the sun. In this stage, the people are brought up a steep ascent and forced to gaze into the sun. Once more, the people experience sharp pains as they are not used to the light of the sun. The pains of adulthood may be anything including relationships, jobs, and finances. After those who are forced to stare at the sun have grown accustomed to it, they see the "big picture" and have greater awareness. Adults too have to persevere through their own pains, but the reward is worth it: a family, job, house, etc.. "And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?"(6) After seeing the light of the sun and contemplating on previous stages in life, the people pity the time spent in the
First, the forms of aging and life course structures depend on the nature of the society in which individuals participate. Second, while social interaction is seen as having the greatest formative influence in the early part of life, such interaction retains crucial importance throughout the life course. Third, that social forces exert regular influences on individuals of all ages at any given point in time” (Theories of Aging. (n.d.)). The movie portrays aging being more about living the rest of life rather than dyeing in them.
The Allegory of the Cave, also know as The Analogy of the Cave, Plato's Cave or Parable of the Cave is presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work “The Republic “ as a theory concerning the perceptions of human kind and compares the effects of education to the lack of education on our observations. The passage is written as dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his teacher Socrates.
Did one ever wonder why a person’s characteristics and behavior change when he or she experiences different stages of life? Also, can one predict what kind of life he or she will lead during the next stage, depending on his or her age? Just as the title of the passage suggests, Sheehy predicts different stages that most people experience between the ages of eighteen and fifty. She uses age as a major factor to indentify and categorize the human stage into six stages: “Pulling Up Roots”, the “Trying Twenties”, “Catch-30”, “Rooting and Extending”, the “Deadline Decade”, and lastly “Renewal or Resignation.” Sheehy refers to her self-proclaimed stages of life as the “developmental ladder” in which everyone will go through at some point in
In the ‘The Allegory of the Cave’, Plato uses a philosophical situation to help us as the reader to examine our perception of life by what is around us. Plato uses such an abstract situation to show that we can mistake the information that we gain due to our position in a situation for truth.
The term “coming of age” does not always refer to the obvious state of adulthood. It does not always coincide with society’s definition of an adult and adduces more to the psychological and moral growth of an individual. In life, experiences and influences are said to be the factors that help in developing ones character. Things that on the surface may not seem to have lasting effects are usually the most impressionable of situations. Though personality traits derived from cultural experiences are often seen early on in life, they can continue to develop and evolve even into adulthood. And it is in adulthood where realizations are made subsequently due to these very situations. It is also apparent that age does not always commensurate with maturity, for with maturity comes understanding. Influences also play a major role in a person’s character development. Influences also can affect temperament, personality, disposition, motivation, and initial perspectives and reactions. This sagaciousness was thoroughly expressed in the novel Song of Solomon by Toni Morrison. This novel delved extensively into the coming of age of main character Macon “Milkman” Dead.
Plato’s logical strategy in the allegory of the cave is of deductive reasoning. Plato uses a cave containing people bound by chains which constrict their neck and legs in such a way that they are unable to turn around and there is a fire roaring behind them casting shadows on the wall. Since the prisoners cannot turn their heads to see what is casting the shadow the only thing they can perceive are the shadows and the sounds that seem to becoming from them. This is what Plato argues in the allegory of the cave “To them, I said, the truth would literally be nothing but the shadows of the images.”(The Allegory of the Cave Plato). Since these prisoners know nothing outside of the cave they are ignorant of the “light” and are content on
One of Plato’s more famous writings, The Allegory of the Cave, Plato outlines the story of a man who breaks free of his constraints and comes to learn of new ideas and levels of thought that exist outside of the human level of thinking. However, after having learned so many new concepts, he returns to his fellow beings and attempts to reveal his findings but is rejected and threatened with death. This dialogue is an apparent reference to his teacher’s theories in philosophy and his ultimate demise for his beliefs but is also a relation to the theory of the Divided Line. This essay will analyze major points in The Allegory of the Cave and see how it relates to the Theory of the Divided Line. Also, this
Adult life is what Plato intends to symbolize in the next stage, when the people are forced to see the sun. In this stage, the people are brought up a steep ascent and forced to gaze into the sun. Once more, the people experience sharp pains as they are not used to the light of the sun. The pains of adulthood may be anything including relationships, jobs, and finances. After those who are forced to stare at the sun have grown accustomed to it, they see the "big picture" and have greater awareness.
This paper discussed The Allegory of The Cave in Plato's Republic, and tries to unfold the messages Plato wishes to convey with regard to his conception of reality, knowledge and education.
After reading, The Allegory of the Cave, it discussed how the people in the cave are chained up. Socrates says that the people are “us” and the cave is our world. These people are chained up, which restricts them from expanding their knowledge and understanding Goodness. This made me think about our world and what the Goodness is in our world. So, what is it that is in our cave that is restricting us from understanding Goodness?
As human beings age, according to Erik Erikson, they go through developmental stages that help to create and transform their personalities. If needs are met and the ego is gratified, then the individual is able to move on to the next challenge. Onward they march in life and in stage until they find the end level: integrity versus despair. This has been categorized as adults 65 years and older by Erikson. Here, people are to reminisce and judge their lives in terms of merit or disappointment. Erikson himself had a lot to comb through in his later years.
The Republic In Plato’s work, The Republic, he addresses the controversial topic of perception versus reality (attitude toward truth and lies). Throughout the novel there is a reoccurring theme of society sheltering its people from the truth. In The Republic, Plato has a firm definition of truth and lies. In the society created in this work, the people’s perceived truth turns out to be false. Examples such as education, art, and the allegory of the cave are used to display this attitude that Plato possesses.
In society today most people live by what is call “social norms”, most people follow these norms and some choose not to follow them. Social norms are certain things in life that everyone does to be accepted by their co-workers, family, friends and even strangers. Some may feel that they have to live by these norms to get through life without being rejected and to be known as a “normal” person, hence the word “norm”. If a person were to stray from this path and just do what they felt like doing and do what made them happy as an individual, would they be criticized? In Plato’s Allegory of a Cave he describes an example of people conforming to the norm they were born into and then shows the results of a person emerging from this community
“See human beings as though they were in an underground cave-like dwelling” (193). Although Plato’s famous allegory of the cave doesn’t appear until Book VII of The Republic, its significance cannot be understated. The meaning behind the Greek philosopher’s imagery manifests itself throughout the rest of the work, specifically Book I. After outlining the description of the cave and demonstrating how the rest of The Republic dramatizes it, I argue that Plato (or Plato’s Socrates) is revealing a relationship that posits philosophy, which can only come about through mutual respect, as critical for the city’s well-being, but ultimately not enough just by itself.
As we age, there are varieties of changes that occur internally and externally with our bodies. Aging is one of the changes that has a natural tendency with a purpose but has an inadequacy of understanding. Interestingly, the growth of aging has a distinctive procedure that represents progress in aging but with different decisions that may not agree with life. However, aging is a gradual physical growth that all human experience from the beginning to the end of life. In maturing, the fullness of age can represent a well-preserved body and mind that display the honor of the aging advances. Fortunately, aging has qualities that increase wisdom and experience of the splendor of aging, according to Proverb 20:29 (Amplified Bible), "the honor of