Socrates compares the visible part of the world, the world of Belief, to the cave. The prisoner’s upward journey to freedom and the things above is like the journey of the soul to the world of Ideas, including the Form of Goodness.…
Similarly, “The Allegory of The Cave” is a parable retold by Plato that challenges the misconceptions individuals hold throughout life that are based on senses and experience only. Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine men that lived in an open ended cave with their heads restricted so they could only face one direction. The men saw nothing except shadows on a wall and heard nothing except echoes from above and would presumably believe that was reality. However, Socrates’ argument is that just because these trapped men were never acquainted with the truth, does not mean that their perception on reality is trustworthy, since it is based on senses instead of knowledge. Socrates continues his allegory by illustrating what would happen if one of these “prisoners” were to break free of his chains, be able to move around, and witness a world completely…
Kreis, S., (2004). Plato, The Allegory of the Cave. The History Guide. Retrieved 4/14/13 from http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html…
Allegory of the Cave is a dialog between Socrates and Gloucon in The Republic written by Plato. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Socrates depicts a long, dark cave with a small opening that allows a small amount of light to enter. Inside the cave there group of prisoners, who have been in the cave for their entire lives. The prisoners legs and necks are chained to the cave floor so they are unable to move and can only look forward at the cave wall. At the back of the cave there is a fire that they are never able to view. In between the prisoners and the fire there is a low wall with a path behind it, along which people carry pictures, puppets, and statues. These pictures, puppets and statues are all the prisoners are able to see, and the echoes of the puppeteers when they speak are all they are able to hear. Although the prisoners are chained they are still content because all they have ever known are the shadows. None of them have ever seen anything beyond the cave and have no desire to do so. However one prisoner wakes up to find that he is no longer chained to the floor, and is able to leave the cave. Once the prisoner is outside he realizes that the shadows are not real. The prisoner then decides to return to the cave, to free the other prisoners, however reentering the cave would make his eyes have to…
The Allegory of the Cave by Plato questions truth, reality, and demonstrates how we are similar to the prisoners within the cave. Every person has a personal “cave” and only with knowledge and understanding can we escape from the captivity ignorance.…
Plato’s account of Socrates’ Allegory of the Cave is a philosophical rhetoric of the human condition. In the rhetoric, Socrates use of persuasion guides Glaucon to makes a 180’ towards the topic. Socrates, powered by his passion for the state persuades Glaucon through use of manipulation in its various forms such as flattery and biased justifications which entice Glaucon.…
In “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, there are people living in an underground den that have been there for their entire lives. There is a fire behind them and they can only see what is in front of them which are only shadows of objects. The people think that this is as real as it gets because they do not know any better. One man was taken outside of the cave. In the light, he saw real objects. He learns the truth that things are much more real than he previously thought. Then, he tries to enlighten the other people that are still in the cave. He tells them what he has learned, but they do not believe him and actually condemn him for the moral misconduct. To the people in the cave, shadows are their reality and is what they think…
Since most of us live in the shadows, it might be strange and frightening to have everything we believed questioned and proven wrong. Yet it is something necessary for growth, it is necessary to stop living in the cave which is our minds. I quote: “Last of all he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is”. Plato would want us to see ourselves for what we truly are, what we are meant to be and not slaves to anything else or even ourselves. Once we acquire more knowledge and change…
“Allegory of the Cave”, written by Plato, is story that contrasts the differences between what is real and what is perceived. He opens with Glaucon talking to Socrates. He has Glaucon imagine what it would be like to be chained down in a cave, not able to see anything other than what is in front of him. He tells a story of men that were trapped in a cave and were prisoners to the truth. These prisoners have only seen shadows. But because of their ignorance, these slaves to the cave believe that the shadows are real. The story goes on to say that one of the men has been dragged out of the cave. He is not happy to see the real world, yet upset because he is being taken away from all that he knows. As he approaches the outside, he is blinded by the sunlight that he has never seen. The sunlight can be interpreted as actual sun or as knowledge, making the journey rather painful in mental and physical ways. The prisoner wants to return to his life as a peasant inside of the cave. When he is outside of the cave, he only wants to look at shadows and reflections, but later proceeds to look at actual objects surrounding him. Lastly, he looks at the sun itself, as he realizes that is what created this beautiful nature. The climax of the story is when the ma realized that he no longer has to worry about reality and reasoning, because he achieved the understanding of it. Eventually, he goes back to the cave. He is not greeted nicely back at the cave because he is seen to have taken a meaningless trip. The man who had seen the outside world took it upon himself to teach the others and lead them into understanding the truth of reality. The story finished by Socrates saying that the most qualified and wise people are the best options for leading in government, like the prisoner who discovered truth.…
“The Allegory of the Cave” demonstrates many of Plato’s beliefs, impacting the way he views education.…
Different views exhibit on how knowledge is achieved. One may say through common sense and observation, while another may say through teachers and peers. According to the philosopher Plato in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, “Certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blindness. The power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being.” In making this comment, this Greek philosopher argues that, everyone has the capacity to learn because knowledge is present in the soul thus we all can acquire knowledge and wisdom by recollecting and putting together what in fact the soul already knows. Plato is right that humans have the aptitude to gain knowledge, but he seems on more dubious ground when he claims that knowledge is already present in one’s soul. I find this to be unconvincing because humans seek education to learn something which they didn’t already know. For example an…
The allegory is nothing but Plato’s cave. In his book The Republic, he has a conversation with Socrates about an imaginary scene that a group of people who lived chained in a cave…
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is the factual perception on what human’s ignorant minds accept whatever they perceive without envisioning the reality. His use of “dark” imagery illustrates how a person is trapped and isolated in his own “cave” and conceives everything without visually seeing the “light” outside the cave. He conveys the idea that the “prisoners” are stuck and “chained” in their own reality because they were only shown one perspective from “childhood”. Plato wisely suggests the idea of using our senses and how we individually depend on them to find the truth outside of our “cave”. Morality being that the prisoners can remain in the cave, scared of knowing the truth.…
Plato. The Allegory of the Cave. The Human Experience: Who Am I? Tapestry Press. 7th Edition.…
Education has been a key point in my life and it has opened me the doors to many different experiences. Thanks to education I have had the opportunity to choose what I wanted to do in my life and decide where I wanted to live. Education has given me more freedom to make decisions. Plato said that education should be mandatory for everyone because is the only way to develop a just society (The Republic). The author defended that education is the process that enables man to become aware of the existence of another reality (Allegory of the Cave). I agree with Plato that there is another reality. In my opinion there are many realities as there are many perspectives of the world. However, I think that knowledge is not enough to understand the other realities and it is needed the experience to realize that there are more things behind our reality. In my opinion knowledge allows me to make my own decisions with freedom but I am able to understand the other realities through experience. Although philosophers insist that education is the process of learning different concepts and skills required to understand another reality, I will argue that experience has played a more important role in my education than the knowledge learned from others. In addition, I think that education’s role should be helping the people to choose freely rather than developing a just society.…