Others might also argue that as the shadows are all that the prisoners in the story have ever known the shadows are reality for the prisoners and therefore Plato’s idea of reality is distorted as people’s reality is only what they know not what is reality to others.…
Plato uses his Cave to show that the reality we are all use to and accustomed to is just a sham. It can often be a difficult journey to find God and have him in your life. The chains can represent the evil that holds man back from the path to glory. We all like to believe we are good and the prisoners new no other reality and felt what they see is the truth. They cannot accept that there is something better than the life they live. These evils are what we meant to avoid and to escape from evil. I personally view the prisoner as one…
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…
“The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind Plato’s allegory is the basic opinion that all we perceive are imperfect “reflections” of the ultimate forms, which subsequently represent truth and reality. The complex meanings that can be perceived from the “cave” can be seen in the beginning with the presence of the prisoners who are chained in the darkness of the cave. The prisoners are bound to the floor and unable to turn their heads to see what goes on…
The Allegory of the Cave” (Plato) is a metaphor that shows how we believe reality. What it is showing is that the things we perceive are imperfect reflections of forms that only represent reality. In the Allegory, Plato uses a cave where prisoners are chained down and forced to look at the wall. Plato shows that the prisoners do not actually know what reality is. The readers understand that the puppeteers behind the prisoners are using objects to create shadows to real things and people, but the prisoners are unable to turn their heads, so they don’t know anything…
In his allegory, Plato says that there are a few prisoners seated in a cave behind a small wall facing a big wall. The only thing they can do is looking at the wall in front of them and listen, they cannot even move their neck or the rest of the body since they are tied with ropes. Behind them and the small wall there is a fire and between the fire and the small wall there is a path where some people are carrying figures of animals and people, in order to reflect the figures in the big wall, so that the prisioners see them. Some of the people carrying the figures are also talking so the prisoners might think that the figures are the ones that are talking instead of real people.…
The allegory of the cave is explained as people chained to chairs in a cave that can only see shadows dancing in front them that are cast by people behind those in the chairs as sort of puppets, and the people believe these shadows to be reality. the prisoners would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of these artifacts (Plato 187). Plato goes on to theorize about what would happen if one of the prisoners were set free. He would see the real world, and learn that he was only seeing shadows of true life before. Then, what if that same prisoner were to go back into the cave? if he had to compete again with the perpetual prisoners in recognizing the shadows, wouldnt he invite ridicule? Wouldnt it be said of him that hes returned from his upward journey with his eyesight ruined and that it isnt even worthwhile even to try to travel upward? (Plato 189). The contrast between the perpetual prisoners and the one who had seen the light is where the hubris is present in this allegory.…
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 the story, Plato uses the prisoners as representative of human perception. “Like ourselves … they see only … shadows ...” (Plato 507). Much like “ourselves” (humans), prisoners only know their own “truths”, the shadows, which are based on what they experienced and learned; it does not matter what reality is. Therefore in the story, Socrates talks about exposing them to the truth. “… unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then … his eye is turned towards more real existence …” (Plato 507-508). Before the prisoner can accept reality, they need to adjust to it by seeing the “more real existence,” after seeing the shadows. “… he is forced into the presence of the sun … He will grow require to accustomed to the sight … then reason about him” (Plato 508). By exposing them to a greater truth (the sun), or the reality…
Plato described symbolically the predicament in which humanity finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. Throughout the conversation, ideas develop that are meant to teach people about themselves, their…
Plato’s philosophical beliefs by the Allegory of the Cave represents how people view the world by what they see and hear and that we are blinded because of it. The cave itself represents how we are all trapped from the real knowledge that we are too blinded to see. The shadows in the cave are supposed to be what we think is true and that they’re really just shadows of the truth. The prisoner leaving the cave represents the people who actually try to go out and seek knowledge and the sun is representing the truth in life. The prisoner returning to the cave represents how most people are too scared to except the philosophical truth and are actually scared of…
The Analogy relates to Plato’s Theory of Forms, which explains how the forms possess the ultimate reality. The World of Forms is the unseen world in which everything is constantly evolving and changing. The Analogy however, is the attempt to enlighten the prisoners and explain the philosophers place in society. He uses the story to explain the need to question everything like a philosopher does in order to distinguish between the unreal, physical world and the real spiritual world lit by the sun. The sun is the ultimate good and Plato gives the name of good the demiurge.…
As Socrates begins the allegory, there is a cave with an opening but no natural lighting reaching far enough into the cave. And within that cave, there are people or slaves--that some would call--that are chained by their necks and legs that forces them to sit and not be able to turn their heads and stare at the…
Plato, in "The Republic," describes humanity's inability to escape the pit of darkness known as ignorance due to a limited perspective. Unfortunately, society is not fully aware of the limited perspective, because people choose the easier path; as a result, even when civilization is pointed towards two different paths- one towards knowledge and enlightenment and one towards a much easier decision- it chooses to remain in the darkness. The prisoners would rather allow their imaginations to cloud their judgment, causing a shadowy representation of reality, instead of thinking about new solutions; the ideal behind Plato's allegory is that society is unwilling to follow an opportunity as a result of the obstacles that surround the opportunity.…
In this theory, Plato argues that “forms’’, and not the world that we perceive it through our senses, are the purist kind of reality. When the prisoners were released they could see for themselves what was real and what wasn’t. They were forced to accept things the way they truly are rather than what they thought. He wanted to change their behaviors, desires, and tendencies to perceive what is incorrect, and show true happiness.…