...In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato presents his abstract view of human nature and truth, whereas Douglass presents his personal journal in “Learning to Read and Write.” Compare and contrast Plato and Douglass' essays and ideas. How might Douglass view Plato's allegory based on his experience? The most basic question that we can ask ourselves is: who and what am I? Moreover, the answer to this question about human nature (what a human being is) will greatly affect how we see ourselves. In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, he managed to let us visualize people living in a big cave, where these people were chained by the leg and by the neck and they couldn’t move. They can only see what is in front of them. He explains to us how the “The Allegory of the Cave” is the education of the soul toward enlightenment. According to Plato, the chains that bind the prisoners are the senses and the prisoners symbolize ignorant people, the raised wall symbolizes the limitation of our thinking. The idea of Plato’s essay describes how most people are trapped in their own world, unaware of what is happening around them. According to Plato the “The Allegory of the Cave” is the common man and it represents all people before they are fully educated. The common person sees nothing but the shadows on the wall of the cave. In Plato’s essay, the fire has a significant meaning to the common man; it is the source of light and the only reality he can see as it sheds light into the cave. Then comes...
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...Al-Haqab Mr. Lyman Hong English 1A October 8th, 2013 Rationalism and Skepticism: Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave and Wachowski’s The Matrix Today’s modern media and society are greatly influenced by not-so-modern artists, philosophers, and writers. We have all watched, read, or analyzed something that was based off of the idea of someone before us. One example for this would be the movie Inception (2010), directed by Christopher Nolan. In this movie the depiction between the idea of a dream and reality is extremely contrasted to the point where it is difficult to draw the line between what is or is not real. The mind boggling adventure of this movie makes us wonder; did the director draw this idea from thin air? The answer is no. In fact, the animated film Paprika (2007), directed by Satoshi Kon directly resembles the ideas and concepts of Inception. This is because Paprika served as a basis for Christopher Nolan in his movie Inception. Movies, concepts, and ideas are always being interpreted or rephrased in different forms. Aside from these two movies, there are other works that are very similar by concept. Two pieces of work that will be discussed further in detail are, the philosophical work, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Lana Wachowski’s movie, The Matrix. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave walks the readers through a dialogue between a character named Glaucon and Plato’s former teacher, Socrates. They discuss the predisposed beliefs of humans and how those...
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...One of the most famous allegories in Philosophy is Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. An allegory is typically a moral or political story that can be interpreted to have a hidden meaning or lesson. Plato’s allegory could have many different lessons throughout it, the interpretation is truly up to the individual hearing the story. For me, I believe that when Plato was comparing the Sun as being the same as the Good, he was referring to the sun being like the light of knowledge, or when an individual achieves enlightenment. I interpreted Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as his explanation of people coming out of the darkness of illusion and opinion, and into the light of knowledge and wisdom. Plato used the light of the sun to help him to explain the...
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...ts 4. What is your understanding of Plato’s ‘Allegory of the Cave’? Plato’s Allegory of the Cave illustrates the long and arduous journey that is undertaken on the road to true enlightenment. The influence of Socrates is prevalent throughout the text. Socrates, who was Plato’s mentor, was ‘committed to a life that cultivated wisdom’. (Lecture Notes) The pursuit of Truth (The Allegory of the Cave) is one way in which we become wise. I agree with the Allegory to a certain extent. I do believe that people can have a fear of the unknown and can therefore remain static or ignorant as it were. However, I also believe that many people, and in particular children, are naturally inclined to explore and question and therefore further their knowledge, which is at odds with the prisoner as presented to us in the Cave. The first thing that must be done when discussing Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is to ask ourselves what it represents. Firstly, it’s important to point out that it is told by Plato in the context of education. The Allegory is a metaphor for the journey people must take on the road to true enlightenment or in order to gain true knowledge. He utilises the Allegory as a way to explain his theory of forms and his differing views of illusion and reality. The prisoners are living in a world in which they ‘can only look straight ahead of them and can’t turn their heads’. (Plato, 1955, p.256) In this sense, we see what we are told to see and we believe/accept it without ever questioning...
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...” The Allegory of the Cave” In “Allegory of the Cave” by Plato tells the story about the reality that comes forth through knowledge and the willingness for man to seek the truth. The Allegory of the Cave is a deep philosophical scenario that is being described by Plato in a form of a progressive conversation, which begins with Socrates having a factious conversation with is brother. The hypothesis behind his analogy is the essential principles that all we watch are imperfect impression of the conclusive structures, which implies the truth. This is portrayed as glorified feeling of what goodness and justice are. At the point when the prisoners leave the cave, Socrates explain that these are philosopher who have arrived at a comprehension of what life truly is. The three symbols are the cave, the sun, and the chains. The Allegory of the Cave all through the story the prisoners are restrained to the floor and are not able to move their legs and turn their head to view behind them. They had a fire burning behind them, and they saw shadows of people walking by carrying odd object. These shadows were all they knew they even seemed to be real. The individuals they see are the realities of life. To me, this is practically precise portrayal of life, and proceeds with progression of time. “ When educators instruct information into the soul which was not there before like sight into blind eyes”(1238). A prisoner breaks free and leaves the cave. When he first walks outside...
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...In Book VII of The Republic, Plato introduces his ‘Allegory of the Cave’ which presents itself in the form of a Socratic dialogue between Glaucon, the brother of Plato, and Plato’s teacher, Socrates. Plato’s initial focus in his ‘Allegory of the Cave’ is almost entirely transcendent; he is concerned not with knowledge, but rather with the nature of reality. Socrates, speaking to Glaucon, describes a group of prisoners chained to a wall in a cave who have been there since birth. Behind them is a fire, which lights the cave, and between this fire and the prisoners is a road where people carry all sorts of human, animal and other forms, which are then reflected onto the opposite wall of the cave. Unable to turn their heads, the prisoners are only able to see the shadows that these forms cast upon the wall and Socrates makes the point that such men hold that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things. Plato makes an interesting point about human nature in this case, emphasizing the idea that human beings have a tendency to accept the reality that they are presented with. He goes on to say that, upon being introduced to the world outside of the cave, a man would be at a loss and believe that what was seen before is truer than what is now shown, a natural human reaction when facing the realization that one’s entire concept of reality has proven to be false. After his discovery of the world outside of the cave, the man would begin to adjust, first he’d most easily...
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...In the ‘Allegory Of The Cave’ Plato suggests a theory in regards to the idea of human perception. It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates. Plato ultimately claims that knowledge gained through the senses is nothing more than a simple opinion. As a result, Plato also claims that in order to have real knowledge, one must gain knowledge through philosophical reasoning. Plato uses his work of the ‘Allegory Of The Cave’ to help distinguish between individuals who are mistaken by the sensory knowledge for truth and individuals who see real truth and gain real knowledge. Plato sets the setting of the story in a cave in which prisoners have resided since birth. The prisoners are chained and shackled, legs bound, and their head tied so they cannot see in any direction other than ahead of them, facing forward at a blank, stonewall. Behind the prisoners is a fire and a raised walkway where people along this walkway create shadows, which are projected onto the stonewall. Since the shadows are only what the prisoners are able to ever view, they are forced to believe that these shadows of a reality, are real. One of the prisoners is freed of his chains and escapes the cave. The sun initially blinds the prisoner until his eyes make natural adjustments. The prisoner then sets his eyes on life outside of the cave in which he is completely shocked at the world he discovers and does not believe it can be real. The prisoner comes to realization...
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...a) Explain Plato’s Theory of Forms Plato’s Theory of Forms is similar to many other beliefs about the world. For instance, Heraclitus’ notion was that we see a world of perception in constant flux of which we have no true knowledge, while Zeno believed that we can see a static unchanging world and it can be grasped through reason. Plato’s theory is strongly based on what is real and what is not. What is real is thought to be perfect, but something cannot be real or perfect if it is transient. He explains that the World of Forms is very different to the World of Shadows. The World of Forms can only be properly understood by philosophers and those who seek knowledge, not by the ignorant or those who do not wish to learn the truth. The Theory of Forms makes a distinction between those objects that are real and those that are only real in our minds. His dialogues, like the Allegory of the Cave, portray knowledge as the process of leaving the cave and going into the sunlight. The people in the cave find their reality in the shadows cast in the cave and assume there can never be anything beyond these shadows. These shadows symbolise how the world that we see is just a shadow or reflection of what is real. For Plato, the real world is not what we see around us, it is only the World of Forms that is real. Plato believes there are two distinct realms of existence which exists simultaneously. This approach to the two different worlds is know as dualism. The world we live in is...
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...The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when someone is educated to the level of philosopher. He contends that they must "go back into the cave" or return to the everyday world of politics, greed and power struggles. The Allegory also attacks people who rely upon or are slaves to their senses. The chains that bind the prisoners are the senses. The fun of the allegory is to try to put all the details of the cave into your interpretation. In other words, what are the models the guards carry? the fire? the struggle out of the cave? the sunlight? the shadows on the cave wall? Socrates, in Book VII of The Republic, just after the allegory told us that the cave was our world and the fire was our sun. He said the path of the prisoner was our soul's ascent to knowledge or enlightenment. He equated our world of sight with the intellect's world of opinion. Both were at the bottom of the ladder of knowledge. Our world of sight allows us to "see" things that are not real, such as parallel lines and perfect circles. He calls this higher understanding the world "abstract Reality" or the Intelligeble world. He equates this abstract reality with the knowledge that comes from reasoning and finally understanding. On the physical side, our world of sight, the stages of growth are first recognition of images (the shadows on the cave wall) then the recognition of objects (the models the guards carry) To understand...
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...●FishBowl 2 on Plato, Coates, and Gregory Rodriguez Answer the JHW questions due today and also complete the following: What happens when a prisoner is released from the den and “compelled to look straight at the light?” What does the prisoner see when he is returns to the cave? What does he then feel about reality? What happens when a prisoner is released from the den and “compelled to look straight at the light?” What does the prisoner see when he returns to the cave? What does he then feel about reality? When the prisoner leaves the cave and looks straight into the light, he is left blind by the extreme brightness of it. However, after a while, he gets accustomed to the light, and he realizes that the world of shadows in which he had lived his whole life was a mere imitation of reality. Consequently, when he returned to the cave, he has not used to the darkness anymore and his peers...
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...use of refrains—appear to have come about from efforts to fit words to musical forms. However, in the European tradition the earliest surviving poems, the Homeric and Hesiodic epics, identify themselves as poems to be recited or chanted to a musical accompaniment rather than as pure song. ARGUMENTS ON POETRY: The Plato has criticized poetry as an imitative art in his book Republica. Plato narrated in his book that to have an ideal state, it is necessary to ban all imitative art forms as they corrupt the minds. He establishes a debate regarding the usefulness and potentially negative effects of poetry. He presents the theory of cave allegory in order to explain the poetic world and the philosopher world. CAVE ALLEGORY: In the allegory, there are prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire. Between the...
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... “What is important about any philosophy is not what is explains, but what it assumes”. Discuss this question critically and provide examples of assumptions which underpin Machiavellian & Platonic philosophies. In this paper I will discuss the assumptions which underpin Machiavellian & Platonic philosophies in reference to The Republic and The Prince. My position is that both Machiavallian and Plantonic philosophies make assumptions in exemplifying their notions. Machiavelli’s is intentional while Plato’s is unintentional. Also both philosophies through their assumptions sometimes contradict each other. Well expressed In discussing his notion above it is important to understand the basic theory and ideas of Machiavelli and Plato. Both Machiavelli and Plato produce arguments for order in the state but they have different notions of how to go about order. Plato obsesses with certainty and has an ideal form of order, while order with Machiavelli is learning to live with uncertainty. Machiavelli believes we need to be able to work with insecurity and not try and produce certainty. He believes we embrace uncertainty by developing our own armour. Knowledge is the basis of leadership for Plato while Power is the basis of leadership for Machievelli. In the Republic the Allegory of the Cave represents Plato's views on philosophy. Basically, we are all in the cave and Philosophy is what brings us out of the cave. Plato believes that Philosophy is the highest form of inquiry...
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...experience is, in fact, true. Plato's simile of the sun, image of the divided line, and allegory of the cave are intended to clarify exactly how the things we experience in the sensible, ordinary world are less real than the ideal models on which they rely for their existence. One of his theories I particualry agree with is knowledge. Plato was convinced that ethical conduct must be founded on knowledge, and that knowledge must be knowledge of eternal values which are not subject to the shifting and changing impressions of senses or of subjective opinion, but are the same for all men and for all peoples of all ages. It is this ignorance of how we establish our reality that Plato attempted to expose with his complex theory of knowledge. Plato developed a system of levels in which he explained the steps through which a human evolves as wisdom replaces ignorance. Plato described how the human mind achieves knowledge, and indicated what knowledge consists of by means of his allegory of the Cave, his metaphor of the Divided Line, and his doctrine of Forms or Ideas. In one of Platos books in the Republic, he illustrates a “Cave”. Plato asks us to imagine an underground cave, which has an opening towards the light. In this cave are living human beings, with their legs and necks chained from childhood in such a way that they face the inside wall of the cave and have never seen the light of the sun. Above and behind them. The mouth of the cave, is a fire, and between them...
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...Explain Plato’s analogy of the cave. Plato, a famous Greek philosopher who wrote the ‘Allegory of the cave’ attempted to answer some philosophical questions (Why are we here? What is reality?). Plato tells the ‘Allegory of the Cave’ as a conversation between him and his teacher, Socrates, who inspired may of Plato’s philosophical theories. The Analogy of the cave is one of the most famous passages in Plato’s republic. Imagine prisoners being chained up in a cave, since their childhood. Theses prisoners are chained up and forced to look at the wall in the cave. The only source of light in the cave comes from a fire. Behind these prisoners is the fire and between them is a raised walkway, which allows people to walk through the cave. As the people walk through the cave their shadows are reflected onto the wall and their voices are cast as echoes. The prisoners assume that the echoes come from the shadows cast on the wall. This makes that prisoners believe that the shadows on the wall are real, because they are unable to see what is really happening. This means that the prisoners are unable to see the true causes of the shadows, as they are unable to see behind them. Suppose one of the prisoners is finally freed. This prisoner is forced into the real world; he feels confused and doesn’t understand what is going on. He naturally wants to go back to his familiar surroundings of the cave, if the prisoner is prevented from going back to the cave. Gradually his eyes become accustomed...
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...Plato's Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology 1.0. The Background to Plato’s Metaphysics The author Silverman, Allan (2014) of this article titled Plato’s Middle Period Metaphysics and Epistemology wrote about how Plato first began to annotate his own points on metaphysics and epistemology. As we all knew, Plato’s definition of things are heavily influenced by his teachers Heraclitus (c.540 B.C.-480-70) Parmenides (c.515 B.C.-449-40) and especially Socrates (470 B.C-399). However only remnants of the writings of Heraclitus and Parmenides and also nothing left of Socrates. The only evidence that we ever had is Plato’s depiction of his teacher that is the dialog he wrote in his writings about Socrates’s views. Sometimes, it is as if it was Socrates’s writing not Plato because of the many things about Socrates he wrote. Some had said that it was his own views but instead he used Socrates as the speaker. This article also wrote about Plato’s predecessors’ views of the concept that influences his definition of Metaphysics and Epistemology which are Being and Forms. Firstly, Parmenides which he said there is one and only in this world and that is being. The truth is it never change and will never be. Sadly, there is not much we could conclude from Parmenides’s point of view. His concept of being has become Plato’s based of doctrine of Forms. As contrast to Parmenides’s definition of physical world, Heraclitus is the advocate of change. He said that the ordinary objects...
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