Plato and Niccolo Machiavelli magnificent ideologies for leaders of the world. First Plato’s dialogue Allegory of the Cave described what would happen if prisoners were chained to a wall and could only see the shadows before them. The shadows were visuals on the wall from the fire blazing behind them. Plato stated a quote about what would happen if those prisoners were to be released out of the cave? His reasoning for this was to produce what the human natures method is of gaining knowledge. Then, Niccolo Machiavelli described in The Prince why qualities are essential in succeeding as a prince. He stated that “qualities bring either blame or praise (Machiavelli). Therefore, it is significant to suppress negative qualities and let the positive…
In studying all of the symbolism included, it becomes apparent that the Allegory of the Cave is a representation of the philosopher’s place in society, and the other prisoners reaction to the escaped prisoner returning is representing the reaction people have of philosophers, and becoming aware of the truth philosophers hold. The Allegory of the Cave illustrates book 5 and 6 for us by showing the effect education has on the human soul, and how education helps us move through the different parts of the divided line, then will eventually take him to the form of the…
The two texts that include The Matrix and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave both have similar ideas in the way that they both show how everyone has a different idea on what reality is. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave shows a cave where people have been kept since birth. The people are tied up in a way which has them only able to see the shadows in front of them and nothing else either side or behind them. The reality for these people that are tied up is just the shadows of all different things that are walking along behind them including people and animals. When one of the prisoners escapes his bonds he goes out and sees the real world for what it truly is and this person goes back to try to tell the other prisoners. The other prisoners just see the escaped prisoner as a shadow with a voice that they can’t understand. The Matrix is very similar because Neo the main character starts out living in a fake reality of the real world and then gets shown what the actual reality is.…
In Plato's Allegory of the Cave there were multiple beliefs brought upon by the prisoners of this cave. The prisoners of the cave are supposed to parallel everyday people in the sense of how reality is perceived. The prisoners of the cave believed and only knew that reality of the shadows and developed their own belief structure and way of processing that information. Plato connected that to everyday people due to the fact that although we strongly believe the reality we have made for ourselves, there can be more that we have never been exposed to. For example, when one of the prisoners were unchained and brought out of the cave into the world, he was overwhelmed and wanted to tell the other prisoners. Due to the fact that other prisoners could…
In Book 7, Socrates presents the famous metaphor – allegory of cave. The metaphor demonstrates the influence of education on a human soul. People see shadows of statues in the dark place and believe these figures to be real. This shows people’s lowest stage on the Socrates’ line – imagination. When a prisoner is unchained, blinded with the light of fire, within the time he sees that indeed shadows are reflections of statues. This is where belief is represented - he sees the link and percepts this to be real. Finally, the person is taken out of the cave and, blinded within the sunlight, later he sees the real world: real trees, flowers, animals,…
Is it true that from the first day you were born until the day you die you are surrounded by false shadows-false shadows that are made by our peers in order to keep us from making our own decisions and realizations? According to “The Myth of the Cave” written by Plato, that is exactly how the world works. From my standing point I couldn’t agree more. Our society is constantly being manipulated. Whether it’s by false advertisements or somebody else’s behavior, society is constantly controlling the way we think.…
In Michael Ramsey’s video depicting Plato’s Allegory of the Cave men are held captive in a cave since childhood. The only reality they knew was demonstrated before them as the shadows of civilians as they passed by them. All seemed normal in their world until one of the prisoners was set free and taken out of the cave. Once his eyes became adjusted, he was able to accept the new reality portrayed all around him. I had a similar experience when I transitioned from high school to college. In high school my reality was based on the security, structure, and guidance provided by exterior influences, college has helped me to change my perception of reality.…
The allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic is a metaphor meant to illustrate Plato’s views on knowledge but also strengthens his perception of the noble lie in society, an idea that is still very relevant today. It is designed to ask the fundamental question of: “What is the truth?” This is a clear reference Plato’s ideology that rests upon the sworn duty that Guardians make towards the state and it is hence emphasized by this analogy. The journey that one makes to be able to attain that superior state is full of hardships1(The Republic, 516, a) but it is meant to illustrate the route the Guardians take to attain the Philosopher-King status. It is what leads a man to enlightenment but also establishes a supreme duty for whoever discovers…
Socrates explains that the allegory represents our world and the way our senses can interpret it. “The prison house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent…
The Allegory of the Cave is a story that was written down by Plato, and told by Socrates many, many years ago. It tells of a cave containing prisoners who have been there since they were very young. Behind them is a fire that is burning, and between the fire and the prisoners is a road with a curtain-wall. Behind this curtain-wall are figures of wood and stone, including animals and men. Socrates asks if they had some form of freedom, such as being able to talk, or even being freed. Would they understand and be able to handle the outside world? To me, The Allegory of the Cave illustrates the fact that people sometimes do not understand reality for what it is.…
The movie The Matrix has many similar themes and differences to “The Allegory of the Cave”. The Matrix is about a man named Neo, he believes that he’s a normal man with a normal life but then he is contacted by a man named Morpheus. Morpheus exposes Neo to the truth that his world, where he is just regular Tom Anderson is made up. The Matrix, was created by sentient machines that subdue the human population, while their bodies' heat and electrical activity are used as an energy source. Neo is reluctant to accept this truth that his original world, the matrix it is called, does not in fact exist. This relates to the “The Allegory of the Cave”, because Neo lived in ignorance his whole life, not knowing his reality was not the only one.…
Because I love Socrates I find everything Plato writes thoroughly interesting. The minute he opened this part of The Republic with “how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened,” I was interested. The part in the Allegory of the cave that stood out to me was the transformation of the man from the shadows to the sun then back again. It is here that everything seemed to fall in place. The people in the shadows seemed, t me, to have an erroneous conscious, simply because they were living in the shadows. The shadows represented the gist of reality. It was the appearance of an object but not the depth of it. The shadows seemed like a false reality, there to see but unable to be grasped in any way. When the ,an went from the shadows to the sun he refused to believe there was such a thing other than what he had learned from the cave, therefore the sun would represent what reality actually is. The prisoner of the cave was unable to accept reality when he was first introduced to it because for all of his life he had only been able to reach the shadows of reality, not the full thing and he believed he had learned all that there was of reality so he refused to believe there was anything else to say about the manner. The transition from the fake world to true reality took him a while but after one begins to live in reality when he is sent back nothing else will ever make sense. The sun, reality, was able to change a man’s mind, one who had been in the dark for his entire life, but…
Plato is a historical Greek philosopher and one of Socrate’s pupils. After Socrate died in 399 B.C., Plato left his home in Athens and returned approximately twenty years later. “The Allegory of the Cave” is a short story filled with symbolism and metaphors that Plato had written before he died. In the story, Plato wrote about Socrate and his brother, Glaucon, discussing the steps to obtain the truth and why one should obtain it.…
The cave represents the people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the world.The prisoners represent an ignorant, unenlightened, and narrow society. This would comprise of those who have not yet understood the meaning of life.The prisoners are without sun, without a higher understanding, and have limited understanding.Those who are chained represent all human beings who have been forced to think in one particular way; The chains are symbolic of limitations that pull us away from the truth. These chains permit the prisoners only to see shadows replicated by a fire behind them. These chained prisoners are restricted to only what the fire allows them to see – their own perceptions. Because the prisoners cannot see what or who is behind them, they accept those shadows as reality.Their full understanding arises only when the shackles are unbound and can comprehend clearly. The cave shadows are ambiguous and unclear, distorted, without any true form. Plato successfully utilizes the shadows to demonstrate those who cannot see an accurate, clear reality. The prisoners are seeing the shadows as a reality of the visible world, yet their reality are flawed and not the true form. The shadows symbolize what we observe with our senses, and not with our mental understandings – they may well be misrepresentations but we are incapable of…
Through his ideas and archetypal use of shadows, Plato suggests that the humans are viewing images through someone else’s perspective and that it will be the only reality they will know. He uses shadows to represent the “illusions of reality” because the prisoners have been their “from their childhood” and the only true objects they know are…