To conclude, the Cave is in significant to Plato's line. He wanted to show how everyone needs to get out of the "cave" and become educated and to come into the highest power of knowledge. Even though when the prisoner went back to the cave to tell everyone what he experienced they don't believe him and even tried to kill him. I believe what he did was worth the consequences because he still shared his knowledge to others to show them the truth. This reminds me of what Bertand Russell said "Enrich our intellectual imagination and diminish the dogmatic assurance which closes the mind against speculations."
The whole point of the allegory is to represent to journey to enlightenment. The prisoners represent either the unenlightened that have not had enough experience to gain great wisdom or the uneducated that have not learned enough to gain great intelligence. And being thrown out of the cave into the outside world represents the process of becoming enlightened. Once enlightened they would of course not want to leave and to make them go back into the Cave would be cruel, as is noted by Glaucon. But as is explained they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not” (873). Plato claims that these enlightened have a moral responsibility to bring their wisdom to the common people in order to help them learn more so everyone can benefit from the knowledge of an individual. This is certainly an agreeable prospect and one that is not seen enough in the real world. Once
In Plato's Cave, the prisoners are tied down with chains, hand, and foot under bondage. In fact they have been there since their childhood, which much like matrix people are seen as in reality being bound within a pad whereby they are feed images/illusions which keep them in a dreamlike state and they have been in this bondage by virtue of the virtual reality pads in the fields since their youth and like the allegory of the Cave they are completely unaware of such a predicament since in regards to the Cave they have become conditioned to the shadows that dance upon the wall and do not see the true forms of which the shadow is a mere non-substantial pattern of. In the Matrix, within the person of the virtual world, it is a non-substantial pattern of the world, it is reflective of the real world, it is a shadow in its form and nature being a simulation of the world at a particular point in history. Like the prisoners in the cave, those who are prisoners in the system of a matrix are held in their calm state by reason of the illusion that stimulates them and tricks them into remaining asleep or rather into being ignorant of the fact that they are prisoners in pads so the machines can feed on their bio-energy. The shadows on the wall which are reflective is to keep the prisoners on the Cave unaware of the fact that they are prisoners, that they are under bondage and have never truly seen life outside of the Cave. The shadows on the walls are by puppets, perchance puppeteers. They could be seen as the agents, whom within the Matrix being programs are to maintain that the humans asleep in the matrix remain in their comatose state, they are to support the illusion, by keeping man actively ignorant of what is truly happening, so they never wake up. The puppeteers of the puppets which are seen on the wall to keep the mind of the prisoners stimulated so they never realize that they are chained, and only have a vision that is straightforward, which is basically saying their minds are only subjected to a single perspective and they are blind to the degree of seeing within other perspectives, broader perspectives and this in and of itself is a limitation.
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
In the symphonic band concert at csusb, I enjoyed all the songs that were performed but the song I liked the most had to be the second song that was performed by the csusb symphonic band. The name of the piece is named escape from Plato’s cave and it is based on the analogy of Plato cave. The cave is an analogy that explains that we only see and believe what we are raised with and how we are forced to live.
In the instance of Plato’s cave allegory, the scenery associated with prisoners shackled to a cave has a very oppressive connotation to it; despite this, within the cave is ironically where many of the prisoners feel the greatest sense of solace. All symbolic implications aside, this scene does make very much logical sense simply because the cave is all that the prisoner’s have known for their whole lives. From an outsider’s perspective, it is easy for us to write off those involved in this situation as pitifully ignorant. However, there are undoubtedly moments in all of our lives in which we are the ones adamant that staying shackled to a cave is where we belong. While this metaphor can be applied to a plethora of different
The main idea presented by Plato in his infamous Allegory of the Cave is that the average person's perceptions are severely limited by personal perspective. Plato uses the metaphorical situation of prisoners chained together in a way that limited their visual perception to the shadows projected from behind them onto a wall in front of them. He uses that metaphor to illustrate that perspective determines perceptions and also that once an individual achieves a wider or more accurate perspective, it becomes difficult for him to communicate with those who are still limited to the narrower perspective that he may have once shared with them. Plato meant his allegory to apply to the limitations of perspective attributable to social experiences as well as to the absence of formal education and training, particularly in logical reasoning. Plato believed that logical reasoning is a skill that must be learned through formal training and that without adequate training, it is substantially impossible to understand the logical perspective.
The final phase Socrates says the prisoner will go through will be his studying of the heavens by this point he believes the prisoner will be able to himself come up with conclusions regard the sun as “the source of the seasons and the years” (516c) and simply the cause for all he now sees and all he once saw. According to Socrates the prisoner will eventually recall the lifestyle and the people he left behind and began to feel a sense of pity for them but will cherish experience he has received on the surface. He says that if the prisoner were to ever return to the cave he would face the pain of having to readjust to the light in the cave and the ridicule of the prisoner who will see him as someone who has lost sight of the truth instead of the newly enlightened soul he is.
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.”
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
Plato’s most important idea in his ethical theory is bringing knowledge, ideas, and truth into a reality. In the story, “Allegory of the Cave,” it describes prisoners being trapped inside a cave, not being able to move their heads (what the call “fettered”). The prisoners are only able to do is look at a wall forever with shadows passing by from the opposite side of that cave. The purpose of the prisoners staring at the wall and watching shadows pass by is to understand the real world versus the world inside the cave. The world outside of the cave is where the light is, where they will understand that it is the real world compared to inside of the cave where everything’s unreal. If prisoners escape, they will run out to the real world only
Ayn Rand in the novel Anthem and Plato in the “Allegory of the Cave” assert that Equality 7-2521 and the prisoners lived in a dystopian society where they were prohibited from knowledge. Rand and Plato support their assertion by describing how both of them had knowledge on what they were allowed to know. The people who lived in Equality's society were like prisoners of the cave since knowledge was kept from them too. Rand and Plato's purposes are to inform the reader how having more knowledge gives a person individuality and differentiates him from others. Rand and Plato write in an informative tone for the people who live in a dystopian and utopian society in order to inform how everyone should have knowledge of how the real world is.
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.
Plato describes the vision of the real truth to be "aching" to the eyes of the prisoners, and how they would naturally be inclined to going back and viewing what they have always seen as a pleasant and painless acceptance of truth. This stage of thinking is noted as "belief." The comfort of the perceivement, and the fear of the unrecognized outside world would result in the prisoner being forced to climb the steep ascent of the cave and step outside into the bright sun.
It is not enough to sit outside the cave and enjoy the light; he must go down to the masses, to the shadows, to the imprisoned, even if he does not want to. In describing the allegory of the cave, Socrates states, “So our duty as founders is to compel the best natures to achieve that sovereign knowledge we described awhile ago, to scale the heights in order to reach the vision of the good. But after they have reached the summit and have seen the view, we must not permit what they are now allowed to do … Remain above, refusing to go down again among the prisoners to share their labors and their rewards, whatever their worth may be” (Book VII, p. 213-214, 519c-d). While it is unrealistic to believe that one person could bring justice to the entire mortal world, it remains for the philosopher to conduct his affairs in peace and in justice, allowing others to glimpse the light so that they too might turn away from the world of shadows. He must live intentionally and carefully, habituating himself to the shadows and remaining aware of the dangerous environment that exists under the tyrant. But should his survival allow the freedom of another from chains, then the philosopher can live and die at peace having fulfilled the obligation of
It would never be an easy path to walk down, and it would take a lot of struggling. Only certain determined people will actually make it to the opposite side. Socrates says these most qualified people should be the ones to lead the public. I believe this is also true in today’s society. I say this because when it comes to election time, we as a country are not going to vote for an uneducated lunatic. I believe that the president should be someone intelligent with good morals and very qualified. In order to reach that high point, you must go out of your comfort zone, like the prisoner did. In life, people go out of their comfort zones all of the time. I’ve always believed that in order to achieve something you’ve never had/done, you must do something you’ve never done before, such as stepping out of your comfort zone. Only the best can be found when you make an attempt to extend yourself as a human being. I relate the cave in this story to the social norm. No one wants to step out of it because I their life, the norm is all there is. I believe the shadows would represent all of the other things that could be out there, but they have no desire to go find out what they are. They are too comfortable with what they have and haven’t gone looking for more. The cave is a comfort zone for the prisoners in Plato’s time and for teenagers today. Without the outside world, there is no curiosity, no questioning. I believe it is important to