The Void of Learning Explained in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

In Plato's The Republic book VII he tells a story about prisoners in cave that were held captive. “Imagine that along this path a low wall has been built, like the screen in front of puppeteers above which they show their puppets.” (Plato PP) In today's society, it is not a cave rather a state of mind and the puppeteers are rather everything that we are exposed to. Every culture is stuck in a bubble, made to believe their values and traditions are above anyone's who are different. Socrates is explaining to the student how we only accept what we know to be true. The way society functions can be explained by us imagining a group of people whose existence has been inside of a cave. He explains that these prisoners are chained in a way that they are unable to turn to see in any other direction. There is a fire behind them that provides light which casts shadows that the captives believe to be entities. The prisoners way of making sense of it all is to give names and meaning to these shadows. One of the prisoners gets unlocked by her chains and

Inside the cave the prisoners are forced to look at the wall of shadows, which really means that they are forced to stare at their false reality. This is because they had “their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move”(par 1). The chains represent what in life is holding people back from seeing the truth. There are people supplying this false reality through ”objects which are being carried” (par 3) behind the prisoners, which casts their shadows on the wall. These objects represent the reality that they know. Behind this reality are the people supplying the prisoners with the lies. The shadow casters sit behind the wall “like the screen which marionette players have in front of them”(par 1). The shadow casters force people to see the reality that they are projecting. They believe that those objects on the wall is everything that there is to the world.

“When truth is blurred by lies and misinformation, perception becomes reality and all is lost.” A person's perception is based off of what they believe and the world becomes a reflection of their own beliefs. Often, society is told and shown lies that they are forced into believing. Society will live the rest of their lives with the belief of these lies. However, when someone wanders away from society, on the pursuit of happiness, and gains the truth of our misconception. It is their obligation to spread their knowledge to the rest of society. Unfortunately, their voice and knowledge is ignored by the society, but their legacy is never forgotten. In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and the song “The Cave” by Mumford and Sons, when analyzed as

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

It seems to me that Socrates has set up each part of this analogy to represent a separate part of the philosophers struggle toward truly becoming a philosopher and achieving the study of philosophy. The cave itself seems to represent the societal norms that will be forced upon the upcoming philosopher from birth. While the philosopher is being brought up knowing only one thing as the truth he must find the strength to break himself free of the chains that bind him to the non-philosophical souls of society and begin to question what is known as “truth”.

With the wall and the fire in back of them it shows shadows. The shadows are the only things the prisoners have ever seen and think they are real people. Socrates represents these people as the lowest stage of imagination. A Prisoner is then freed and then experiences pain from looking at the light of the fire. He then understands that statues make the shadows.

As Socrates is describing the cave and the situation, he stresses the point that the prisoners are completely oblivious as to what is reality as they would know nothing but the shadows casted by items held by the puppeteers, and believe this to be their own reality. This is important to the story as it shows that what we believe is real from the moment we are born is completely wrong based on our own flawed interpretations of reality. The point so far is that it is not what we can see but what we can’t see is what grasps our minds and Plato describes this thinking as “imagination.”

Three prisoners have been caught since their childhood and being hold their body of the chain from seeing everything behind in the den. Day by day, they just see shadows on the cave wall by the small fire and name those objects, which they believe as realities by the imagination. Then one of three prisoners is released who finally could explore the truth by himself from his real eyes. What a surprise are shadows of vessels, statues, and figures of animals is kind of a complication of truth. Obviously the free-prisoner would prefer to suffer physical pains to see tangible materials than talking to his fellows in the den. The article“ The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato represents philosophical realism that people believe in what they see “shadows”

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” criticize educators improving the lack of awareness and experience and should struggle and encourage themselves to understand and evaluate the knowledge behind what they are

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, introduces us to the topic of human ignorance. In this allegory, prisoners are chained in which they can only see the back of the wall. Behind them is a blazing fire which enables them to see the shadows of people passing through the cave. The prisoners do not know that the objects on the cave wall are shadows; instead they believe it is the real thing. This is due to them being in the cave since childhood and not ever knowing the difference.

The prisoners have lived in the cave their whole life and have become used to seeing their own shadows. The prisoners have been chained up by their legs and necks which prohibits them to see what is behind them. In that case, they start to believe that the shadows are real. On the wall, many other people move with different things on their hands the prisoners inside the cave cannot raise their head completely so they only can see the shadows which they believe was real but it is just their illusion. Another symbol is the sun.

There are men chained to one side of a cave and a fire behind them, casting shadows along the wall that they are facing. If men were to walk with objects behind the chained men they would only see the shadow of the object and assume that that was what the objects looked like. However, if one of the men was to be dragged out of the cave and actually seen the object in the real world, it would look much different. The man who had stepped out of the cave would be much more educated then the man inside and would see justice firsthand. To be "good", as Socrates puts it he will need to go back in an educate the others, to achieve the same knowledge that he has. In comparison to the real world, the trip out of the cave is the mind. My interpretation of the allegory is that Socrates is suggesting that him and his followers are the only ones who have dared to venture out of the cave and enlighten their minds with new ideas. Once they embark back into the cave however to bring back their new ideas they are not warmly welcomed. Plato says, "Wouldn 't they say of him that by going up above was neither prudent nor advisable? And if they could free their hands to seize and kill the man who had released and led one of them up, wouldn 't they kill him."(12). In other words, the men inside the cave felt threatened by the man who was bringing men above the cave and wanted to get rid of him, just like Athens wanted to dispose of

Socrates’s anecdote of the cave presents a ghastly image: people who “are in it from childhood with their legs and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to turn their heads all the way around” (193). Also inside the cave is a “fire burning” which allows certain objects (out of sight and controlled by others) to project shadows (193). Consequently, the prisoners believe that the shadows are the most real things. When a prisoner is released, he experiences pain due to the light of the fire. In time, he recognizes the truth and becomes accustomed to it. He is then “dragged out into the light of the sun” (194). After a few moments, he tolerates its rays. Most importantly though, he grasps “the sun itself” (195). Finally, the escapee is not content with keeping this

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).

- The Shadows of Reality - The Shadows of Reality We are like the people in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave.” The people chained to the cave were forced to look at projections and shadows that were cast upon the wall. Because th...[ view ]