allegory of the cave
Plato's allegory of the cave in The Republic is a symbolic story of how a philosopher is compelled to educate his soul by grasping the form of the good and once this is achieved, it is his role to enlighten others. In the allegory, Plato's theory of forms and the two-world theory are introduced and most importantly he uses the metaphor of the sun-this is how the subject of Plato's dualist metaphysics and epistemology have been closely intertwined. He questions the objects of knowledge and what is actually real.In the allegory of the cave, we are asked to imagine the following scenarios. In a dark cave, there are prisoners chained at birth in such a way that they can only look straight at a wall in front of them and they are immobile. 'Conceive them as having their legs and necks fettered from childhood, so that they remain in the same spot, able to look forward only, and prevented by the fetters from turning their heads' Behind them, there is a fire, the only light in the cave. Behind it, there is a partial wall with people manipulating puppets to cast shadows with the fire on the wall that faces the prisoners. I think we are to assume that these people were once the prisoners in the cave freed from their chains because
'Then in every way such prisoners would deem reality to be nothing else than the shadows of the artificial objects' Who are these people putting on the shadow spectacles? I think they represent parents, teachers and anyone who has authorities to educate others. It is our way of life to be educated intellectually and by understanding the truth through moral education will lead us live contemplated lives. However, the prisoners prefer to see the world in their own easy way ignoring the reality because that is what they believe and choose to refuse him and this is the allegory of the cave. When the prisoner was freed from the cave, the sun made him see the truth, similarly the form of the hood is our capacity of knowledge by providing intelligibility. We are all born into a society where we all want to fit in, think and speak of the same things and also Plato claims that it is our senses that prevents us from seeing the truth. 'Then, if this is true, our view of these matters must be this, that education is not in reality what some people proclaim it to be in their professions. Inside the cave is the visible realm, which we can see with our sense and it is ever changing so it is not perfect. He is in disbelief but he now believes that the fire and the puppets are the most real things. The he is now forced out of the cave into the sunlight and he is blinded by such radiant light but soon his eyes fully adjust to the brightness only to discover that the most real things are the physical things outside of the cave, realizing that the puppets were just copies of what he sees now. For example there is humanness to every human that makes us human and that is how we recognize a human as a human. 'And at this point he would infer and conclude that this it is that provides the seasons and the course of the year and presides over all things in the visible region, and is in some sort the cause of all these things that they had seen. they can name the shadows accurately and they no longer need to be taught but they are not released from the cave. Finally he looks up at the sun and understands that the sun makes it possible for him to see the truth and that he is in a better place. Plato implies this theory of human nature to say that we must seek the truth. Plato wants us to seek and learn the truth of the world to live contemplated lives through moral education.
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Acceptance Essays
