...The Implication of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” In The Republic, Plato reveals the overwhelming ignorance of humanity through the allegory of the cave. Plato summarizes his viewpoint of society as a whole through this allegory, portraying the human race as imprisoned in the chains of oblivion, unaware of its own inhibited perspective. A more contemporary philosopher, Umberto Eco, also criticized the state of society in a similar fashion in Travels in Hyperrreality; describing the overwhelming trend of “horror vacui.” The allegory of the cave reveals the importance of education in the journey towards enlightenment-only through instruction can individuals recall the inherent knowledge of the Forms. The significance of the allegory is rooted in Plato’s belief that there exist inherent truths hidden under the superficial surface of society that only enlightened individuals can uncover through education. Plato’s allegory of the cave follows as thus: A cluster of prisoners, having been enclosed in a cave since birth, has never laid eyes on any kind of daylight. Furthermore, these individuals are prevented from turning their heads to look to either side by their bonds, and can consequently only envision what lies straight ahead. Lying posterior to the shackled prisoners is a fire which is subsequently anterior to a wall. A collection of statues sojourn on the top of the wall and are manipulated by a separate group of people, hidden from the prisoners’ sight. As a result of the...
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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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...” 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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...Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to 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 fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. where humans are depicted as being imprisoned by their bodies and what they perceive by sight...
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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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...Thinking as a Hobby vs The Allegory of the Cave Plato’s “Allegory of the cave” was one of the most important allegories of philosophical thought. The first theory of knowledge was Plato. He believed that knowledge was more than just wants in front of you or even what you see but something much greater. He believed there is a reason behind everything and that is part of how you achieve a huge part of knowledge. As for William Golding, he seems to expand on the point of a thought and how thinking is knowledge and power. This comes from his essay “Thinking as a Hobby”. Out of these essays, understand that there is a difference between the act of thinking and thinking itself. It destroys the idea of agreement for one to understand and come to the fact of enlightenment and true reality. The idea behind this all is that Plato has a descriptive idea of the cave, and Golding narrates an idea that matches enlighten or the unenlightened....
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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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...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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...In Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave," Socrates tells an allegory of the hardship of understanding reality. Socrates compares a prisoner of an underground cave who is exploring a new world he never knew of to people who are trying to find a place of wisdom in reality. According to Socrates, most people tend to rely on their senses too much and believe the world as it is appeared to our sight. In order to free our souls from this mental prison, Socrates suggests that we should go through a phase that does not only prepare ourselves for the real world but also prevent us from heading to the wrong direction to seek the truth - education. In conclusion, Socrates believes those who have reached a higher level of knowledge and wisdom should bear a responsibility to lead the community and improve it because they are blessed with better education and are able to enjoy a different reward than the power to control others like most politicians do. Two thousand years after Plato has written down the allegory, it is amazing how we can still relate it to our everyday lives. As Plato wrote in "The Allegory of the Cave," education is a very important phase that leads us to wisdom and helps us to get accustomed to the real world with less difficulty. Apparently, this theory has proven to be correct for the past two thousand years. Until today, those of higher wisdoms are mostly people who have mastered a thorough and solid education; and they certainly have become the leaders of the...
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...Nataly Morales Villa Dr. Pearson English 1101 29 September 2014 Plato’s Allegory and Benjamin Franklin’s Temple of Learning Set in 390 B.C. and 1799, Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Benjamin Franklin’s Temple of Learning demonstrate more contrasting than similar ideas on the topic of education. The two literary works are profoundly analyzed by modern society and are part of group discussions throughout school classrooms. Each author has a specific way of getting his point across. The Allegory depicts how a prisoner gained knowledge through his own life experiences while Benjamin Franklin credits Harvard as the only institution where learning can be acquired. Plato emphasizes on giving back to the community, yet Franklin talks of the abuse done to the common folk by those who had been enlighten with knowledge. Like wise, the two authors persistently agree upon capacity being the main skill needed to obtain a proper education. First and foremost, Plato’s Allegory exposes the steps through which an ignorant prisoner of a cave became educated. Since birth, the prisoner had been denied the opportunity to see the world outside the cave. For the prisoner reality meant shadows and figures reflected against a wall. In his life, no color or three dimensional shapes existed. After the prisoner was released he comprehended how things worked outside the cave. He realized the sun gave life to plants, trees, animals, and humans. Without it the world would be nonexistent. He was...
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...The Allegory of the Cave In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave’s entrance. Bound to their chairs since childhood, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in front of them with shadows being displayed. Their view of reality is solely based upon this limited view of moving shadows; this is what is real to them. Plato illustrates, in The Allegory of the Cave, that humanity believes aimlessly in their beliefs, prohibiting any comprehension of the truth of their existence. The "prisoners" do not realize that they are being held captive, since that existence is all they have ever known. “One might be released, and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round, and to walk and look towards the firelight; all this would hurt him, and he would be too dazzled to see distinctly those things whose shadows he had seen before” (15). What Plato is trying to tell the reader is that a man cannot leave the cave himself, he needs foreign help to achieve true reality. The only way to successfully leave is if you are “unplugged” from the game of life, almost as if “...someone would drag [a man] thence by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, and never stop until he could drag him out into the light of the sun....” (19). Upon his release into the free world, “he would have to get used to it...” (21), Plato says this to make the reader apparent of the fact that...
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... Mr. Platt Revelation of the Soul We live in a society where we are told what to eat, drink, think, etc. Living in such a ritualized lifestyle can often leave us blind. However, we don't even realize it. The "Allegory of the Cave," by Plato, is more than just a story; it's a tool that can be applied to our life in almost any situation. For instance, looking into this story, I realize how much it is related and connected to religion. It is so easy to just do what everyone else is doing just to feel accepted. Which was me, a conformist, trying to fit in. Plato's story not only opened up my outlook on life, but was an interpretation of my allegory of the cave–being saved spiritually. I did everything and anything just to fit in with everybody else. When he or she is a child, they usually practice the same religion as their family, because it's the only way one knows. When I was younger, my parents enrolled me in a private school, Goshen Christian. I didn't know what the importance of religion was when I went there. I was just going because my parents told me to. Which relates to the cave in a way, for instance, Plato says, " human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light…; here they have been from their childhood, and their legs and necks chained so they can not move…" (Plato 449). This relates because even from my early childhood I felt as if I was...
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...Aylin Vargas English 1301-416 Allegory of the Cave Annotation The son of a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a career in politics when the trial and eventual execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. He abandoned his political career and turned to philosophy, opening a school on the outskirts of Athens dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Plato's school, then known as the Academy, was the first university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A.D. 529, when it was closed by Justinian. Unlike his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings are in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in...
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...Explain the analogy of the cave in Plato’s republic (25 marks) Plato, 428-347 B.C., was an Athenian philosopher who lived in Ancient Greece. In 407 B.C. he became a pupil and friend of Socrates. After living for a time at the Syracuse court, Plato founded (c.387 B.C.) near Athens the most influential school of the ancient world, the Academy, where he taught until his death. The “Republic” is one of Plato’s greatest books that he has written. Plato’s presents one of the most famous analogies in philosophy: the cave. This analogy illustrates the effects of true knowledge. True knowledge moves the philosopher through life without any distractions, which in due course brings him to the Form of the Good. He tells the Allegory of the Cave as a conversation between his teacher Socrates who inspired many of Plato's philosophical theories and Glaucon. In the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave, in which prisoners have been kept since their childhood, and each of them is held where they are all chained so that their legs and necks are unable to turn or allow them to move. This leaves them in a predicament where they’re forced to look at a wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners is a fire and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway (bridge), on which people can walk. These people are shadow play, and they are carrying objects, in the shape of human and animal figures, as well as everyday items. The prisoners could only see...
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...The town has a coal mine, which employs most of the men who live there. John Hickam is the foreman at the coal mine. John has two sons, and he intends for them both to work in the coal mine. One of his sons, Jim, gets a football scholarship. The other son, Homer, becomes interested in Rockets. In the movie, Homer overcomes many obstacles in order to launch rockets and get to science faire. John Hickam has a very limited world view. He thinks that the most important thing in life is working in the mine. He only seems to value people in as far as they can work in the mine. To John, any other profession is somewhat frivolous. Homer Hickam seems to be a normal teenager with normal ambitions until his world-view is turned upside-down by the sight of the Sputnik satellite streaking across the October sky. Homer decides that he wants to build and launch rockets. Logic – Homer uses logic in order to gain knowledge of rocket science, so that he can make a rocket. First, he reads science fiction comics and reads about Wernher Von Braun, who is the German rocket scientist. Then Homer meets the nerd in his school who knows about rockets. Then, Homer gets some books on science and math and teaches himself. Then Homer and his friends use trial and error to test the rockets, until they make one that launches correctly. Homer also uses the logic of math to prove that his rocket didn’t start the forest fire. Cause and Effect – Miss Riley wants to inspire the students about science and encourage...
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