The Dimensions of Morality in The Prince and The Republic of Plato

In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses a vast spectrum of imagery to explain ones descent from the cave to the light. While Plato uses this Allegory to explain his point through Socrates to Glaucon. This allegory has many different meanings. The Allegory can be used in many different ways, from religion to politics to ones own intellectual enlightenment, or it can be interpreted as the blinded person in a colt like reality. Are we all prisoners in a world that is forced on us through the media? How do we really know that we are not just pawns in some one’s chess game. What meaning was Plato trying to introduce to Glaucon? This cave can represent many aspects in the world. And the prisoners can be any one. The

The one prisoner finally escaping the cave to the outside light shows symbolism as a higher level of philosophy. Returning to the cave was the choice of the prisoner, he felt compelled to spread his new knowledge. Plato’s uses him to represent breaking free from the normal mindset shared. Plato’s argument stands since the cave represents lack of expanding on common knowledge. Even after the prisoner returns to express his findings to others, individuals with philosophies different than the norm is dismissed because of their level above previous things thought of as true.

In the story, “Allegory of the cave,” by Plato, it explains how there were human beings living in a cave chained up facing the wall since they were children. As they grew older all they were able to see were the shadows of people crossing animals, tools, statues etc. on a bridge behind them. Since they could not turn their heads to look, their mind couldn't wrap around what they were really looking at. As if they weren't looking into reality. They had no knowledge of the outside world what so ever. This passage focuses more on justice, truth, and beauty. When a prisoner is released into the real world, the concept of reality is disorienting. The way we can reflect off this in the new world and society today, is the fact that most people are

The Allegory of the Cave is written by the brilliant mind of Plato. In the famous dialogue, Socrates, a well known philosopher, teaches to a student, Glaucon, about gaining wisdom and enlightenment. He uses the cave and the prisoners as an analogy to help make his argument more clear and understandable. It questions those who have knowledge and their responsibilities. Those who have knowledge may not realize that he or she plays an important role in society and its future. Their role involves appreciation, morals, and betterment for society. When someone gains wisdom from an experience, he or she should be morally obligated to pass on the wisdom to others because it can overall benefit society.

Once these people ascend, there curiosity has developed and I personally feel as if the prisoners would want to go to other humans. The prisoners know the people in the cave will have the right education to teach them the good and contemplation of justice, however what about the others out there who do not know what justice and good is. I think the prisoners would want to go search for themselves outside the caves and teach other the teachings created by Socrates. I felt as if Plato didn’t really give a sufficient amount of evidence to reason that the prisoners will not want to interact others. His argument was based off teachings and nothing else.

Soon enough this prisoner’s eyes begin to adjust to this strange new environment and begins to see the reflections in water and the trees and people that surround him. Sadly, after experiencing this new world, Socrates begins to explain what happens when this finally free man is sent back to the dark depths from which he’d been imprisoned. This prisoner is once again dragged down into the darkness of the cave, but as he’s forced back in his eyes have become accustomed to the brightness of the sun, he feels blind in the darkness of his old “home”. His blindness implies to the rest of his fellow prisoners that the world where he was sent to did more harm than good, and for him to tell them any different would cause them to shun him and decide they never want to leave the cave as it seems safer to stay there than to face the unknown. As mentioned, the story of “The Allegory of The Cave” begins with the description of a cave in which a group of prisoners are shackled to chairs that face only one of the walls.

Defining Morality? In the book the Republic by Plato, the matter of morality is discussed in the first chapter. The opening follows the discussion between Socrates and three different individuals: Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus. Socrates questions the meaning of morality and thus everyone gives their own definition to his question.

He says that the people have been in this cave since childhood, and they know nothing about the world outside. Plato tells that these people are chained to the cave walls and they can only see the shadows that are cast by the fires burning in the distance. He goes on to describe what would happen if these prisoners were to be released. Plato says that at first they will struggle because they are not accustomed to the bright light of day. However, he says that soon they will soon become familiar with the light of the world around them (Plato 1-2).

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.

In “Allegory of a Cave” Plato brings a ‘what if’ situation in which one of the prisoners is released of their shackles and is allowed to remove themselves from the cave. When going past the entranceway, it first distressed him, causing him an almost immediate pain. Going through the entranceway, the shadows which once represented truth will be nothing compared to the reality. This represents how hard it is to transition to the complete form of truth and understatement after being forced to grow accustomed to a blurred sense of truth. Beginning the transition will be a painful process as Plato describes the prisoner’s action claiming, “At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his round neck and walk

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a story that seeks to highlight the transformative power of education and the process of pursuing the truth on society. It shows how Plato saw reality and people’s relationship to perception and truth. In the myth, there is a cave with a long passageway leading into a main chamber. Within the cave are people seated and chained to their positions, forced to look only at the cave wall. Behind them is a fire and other beings who manipulate objects in order to cast shadows on the wall for the prisoners.

In The Prince and The Last Days of Socrates, Niccolò Machiavelli and Socrates give their respective personal discourses on what makes an effective leader and what are favorable practices of politics. Although both men have intense nationalism and agree on the ends of their operations being a prosperous principality, it is how they plan to get there, in which the two men differ. Machiavelli believes in a cautious, unexamined approach to statecraft where the ends justify the means while Socrates believes in a ruler that is questioned by his people, examines every viable option available, and adheres to a morally correct code of ethics that is driven by the betterment of the soul over the benefit of one’s state.

In the ‘Allegory of the Cave’, a philosophic view that is discovered is difficult challenges that are faced when seeking new knowledge. This is a view that is very well portrayed in the allegory because once the prisoner is released to the real world and is faced with the truth, it became hard for him to absorb it. Before the prisoner was locked in the cave with other prisoners, he was not aware of the real world as they did not even know what was real or not. As it is stated in the allegory, “Here they have been from childhood, chained by the leg and also by the neck, so they cannot move….” They

Plato's main goal in the Allegory of the Cave is to communicate the relevance and importance of the concept of intellectual perspective. His real agenda is to illustrate that most people are likely perceiving the world around them in a much more limited manner than they realize and that most of us are, to some degree, living our lives in the same circumstances as the prisoners he

In this dialogue we see Socrates in intellectual argument with a fellow philosopher: Protagoras who claims to be Sophists (professional expert in wisdom) they both use various arguments and counter arguments to prove their arguments on the topic of piety and virtue. Socrates believed that Virtues is something that could not be taught or learned, where Protagoras claimed that he can teach people “good judgement” in both personal affairs, civil issues and teach political science so that his students will become good citizens.