Plato's Allegory Of The Cave Essay

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Plato’s Allegory of “The Cave”: Are we living a lie and can we truly know true forms after the fact?
Plato believed in the power of forms more so over the objects we see every day. This belief is made evident in his allegory of “The Cave” in Plato’s “Republic”. Plato weaves a tale between his mentor Socrates and a theoretical student Glaucon. In it, Socrates describes a cave where several men have been chained and restricted to only a certain point of view since childhood. They are made to face a dimly lit cave wall and can only see shadows of forms cast upon the wall behind them from a bonfire from which, forms come and go via a pathway from the outside world into the cave that sits in front of the bonfire. These men take great pride in recounting details of the shadows displayed before them, even so far as to create a hierarchy among the prisoners of who possessed the most knowledge of the shadowy illusions. Socrates then shakes things …show more content…

He layers his arguments one on top of the other to create a mighty tower of argumentation that is tough to crack. At times it seems obvious that Glaucon just has to agree with Socrates.” (Greg Heil). The logic in the cave although set in a fictitious story between master and pupil is sound and very well put together. While reading the allegory one seems to find themselves agreeing much like Glaucon instead of questioning like one should. “There remains therefor in a sensible object a great deal which is no object for the geometrician but falls outside his intellectual vision.” (Nettleship 254). Here Nettleship describes an object having a sensible and perceivable form and an unperceivable perfect form that lies outside the intellect. This compliments Plato’s theory of true forms. Glaucon said it best when he closed with “One who holds a true belief without intelligence is just like a blind man who happens to take the right road, isn’t he?” (Bruder and Moore

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