The allegory of the cave:
Plato, a philosopher in ancient Greece, said I know that I know nothing. In Plato's “Allegory of The Cave”, a man was released from the place where he lived for many years. Soon the man got his most valuable lesson that the place where used to live for many years was not the real world, but which is an imaginary world. He became the man who has the knowledge in the world of the cave, but tragically killed by others due to his speech. Since the beginning of the civilized society, education is one of the perspectives that human being was pursuing besides the basic needs. The man was getting a good education while he discovered the world follows the light. It did not only benefit himself as a person but also gives an opportunity for the group of individuals with him to enter a new world of reality. "As per Plato, true knowledge can only be gained by ascending from the lowest level (darkness of existence, ignorance of reality) to gradually go higher (coming out the cave, experiencing a different life) and then spreading that experience to the peers (return to cave, to spread the
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knowledge)." (Pandey) We are going to look into our protagonist, the enlightened cave prisoner (we shall call him the Enlightened afterward), to better understand the “Allegory of the Cave.” Generally speaking, as the allegory was written at the dawn of Western civilization, that is the Ancient Greek civilization, the skills and techniques weren’t so sophisticated as today, so our protagonist, the Enlightened, was more of a flat or simple character to us. He was not too complicated or round. The only revolution the man had done was to leave (actually according to the text he was forced to leave) the cave, and later, after he was enlightened, he returned to the cave and tried to persuade the other prisoners to try as he did. There are not many indications in the text that show his disposition. At first, he didn’t even have a motivation. He was set free. But he didn’t choose to go for the sun. When he was dazzled by the light, he refused to move forward. But he was propelled to get ahead. Until he reached the realm of the sun and grew accustomed to it did he start to consider himself lucky. And “those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural if our allegory may be trusted” (Plato 4). Nor can we infer from the text what the Enlightened looks like physically.
We don’t know about his size, weight, color of skin, not even his dialect. The whole story is narrated as a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon. There is no notation from our protagonist. He was more like an iconic abstract concept representing the possibility of being enlightened. His thinking process is expressed through the words of Socrates. We can infer from the dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, that, “all these movements would be painful, and he would be too dazzled to make out the objects whose shadows he was used to seeing” (Morris 427-428). The process of converting the Enlightened went through was painstaking. However, it’s worthwhile. Otherwise, he wouldn’t go back to try to enlighten the others in the cave. He thought what he had attained worth spreading and
sharing. The Enlightened changed twice in the allegory, but there was only one conversion. The first change happened when he was set free and forced into the realm of the sun. At first, he was blinded by the intense light of the sun. But as he stayed longer within the real world, he became accustomed to the new reality. By this time the only conversion had been completed. The second change occurred when he thought of his poor fellow prisoners and set out back to the cave and tried to enlighten them as he was enlightened. However, the tragedy came in when he returned to the cave, and he lost his sight due to the conversion. He couldn’t see anything back in the cave anymore. When his fellow prisoners witnessed his “illness”, they began to believe that he was injured by the expedition to the outside world and they killed him when he tried to convert them. In their belief, the man wanted to hurt them. Therefore, the second conversion hadn’t been completed. “According to Plato, only in remembering that which has been wittingly or unwittingly repressed from our conscious awareness (the presence of the realm of being) can we learn to ground the conduct of our lives about this real recognition.” (Burch 12). As per the Enlightened, remembering both the truth, he had witnessed in the realm of the sun and the miserable life he had once lived in the cave along with his fellow prisoners, compelled him to commit to convincing his fellow prisoners to follow his path, which unfortunately led to his cruel death. The point here is how we, through enlightening, come to realize the reality.
The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, shows the contrast between sense experience and rationalism. The story explains that in the cave where some people have known nothing of the outside world and can only comprehend what they see based on what little they do know of their cave. The people have come to the conclusion what the shapes represent and what causes them and believe it to be correct and thus believe it as the reality of the world. However what they don’t know is that this is not the world and what they will soon find out is that the things they once saw with their eyes what they smelt, what they heard, what they felt were just shadows of real images and objects cast on the wall by fire. What this does is show that sense experience can be at fault because the one perceiving is at times is ignorant of the fact that they know nothing of the true reality of the world and its workings. One must be showed how things are in order to learn and thus no longer be ignorant but have now begun taking steps towards wisdom.
I think the prisoner is pulled out of the cave by the enlightened ones, the ones who have reached this essential wisdom They also might stand as deities asserting there power over the prisoner because according to Socrates Plato's teacher only a diety or auricle has the wisdom of the gods and as a result the beings that pulled the prisoner out of the cave and into the light must be deities seeking to grant humankind the wisdom they
American’s education system has been entering crisis mode for a long time. Throughout the past few years, the overwhelming question “Is college needed or worth it?” While it is an opinion, there are facts that back up each answer. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” mentions that the enlightened must help the unenlightened and further their knowledge. The problem with America today is that high school students are given the option of college and that makes for less enlightened people. While it is possible to learn in the work force or Army, college is a better option. Mary Daly wrote the article “Is It Still Worth Going to College?” which talks about the statistical value of attending. Michelle Adam wrote the article “Is College Worth It?” which mentions the struggle young people are going through to even get into college. Caroline Bird wrote the chapter “Where College Fails Us” in her book The Case Against College where she
In Plato 's "Allegory of the Cave" Socrates is teaching his pupil Glaucon how people are like prisoners in a cave who have a hard time perceiving reality and thinks that shadows are as real as objects. He goes on to explain that it 's not until one leaves the cave when one can discover truth, but to attain the truth requires one 's own personal journey. In Paulo Freire 's "The Banking Concept of Education" he explains the oppressive way that students are currently being taught through a depositing and receiving type of method where the teacher is the depositor and the students are the empty vessels in which those deposits are put into. He explains how the education
James Baldwin once said “It is only when a man is able, without bitterness or self-pity, to surrender a dream he has long cherished...that he is set free, that he has set himself free - for higher dreams, for greater privileges.” This quote displays the abundance of courage that is needed to leave everything an individual has in order to move forward. The bravest thing he can do once he has lost his identity, is to surrender who he was and open his mind to the possibility of wo he is going to be.
he was free to leave? Would the man feel pain when seeing the real world?
...s gaze back toward the shadows, as toward what he can see clearly and hold to be real? What if someone forcibly dragged such a man upward, out of the cave: wouldn't the man be angry at the one doing this to him? And if dragged all the way out into the sunlight, wouldn't he be distressed and unable to see 'even one of the things now said to be true' because he was blinded by the light? After some time on the surface, however, the freed prisoner would acclimate. He would see more and more things around him, until he could look upon the Sun. He would understand that the Sun is the "source of the seasons and the years, and is the steward of all things in the visible place, and is in a certain way the cause of all those things he and his companions had been seeing"
Plato wrote “The Allegory of the Cave” in the early 300 B.C. This parable has left many scholars dumbfounded throughout centuries because of the insight Plato fills the pages within the story. It is a story of prisoners trapped in a cave, but specifically about a mans journey from ignorance to knowledge. This is the worldly take on the story—in a biblical point of view it is still a journey from ignorance to knowledge, but in a very different context. The journey from the darkness of the cave into the light of the outside world in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” can be paralleled with the unbelievers journey into salvation.
In book seven of ‘The Republic’, Plato presents possibly one of the most prominent metaphors in Western philosophy to date titled ‘Allegory of the Cave’.
In Plato's Republic, the great philosopher describes what is needed to achieve a perfect society. He addresses several subjects still debated in today's society, such as justice, gender roles, and the proper form of education. He discusses these issues through his main character, Socrates. Socrates, another well-known philosopher for his time, happens upon a group of men, and what begins as a modest question, leads into a series of debates, metaphors, and allegories. Perhaps the most discussed allegory in today's popular culture is the Allegory of the Cave. Over the past decade, several movies have mimicked the fantasy, the most profitable being the Matrix Trilogy. But what makes this story so fascinating? Through it, Plato attempts to map a man's journey through education. The map used is another metaphor: the Line. He explains the rewards for those who reach the top of the Line, and the significance of those who fall short. He also tries to answer the important question, how does a city's ruler view politics and education, once he has reached true understanding?
"No Justice, No Peace!" A statement that has become the headline of the protest on the 405 freeway in Inglewood. This protest broke out on July 17, 2016 at 10:30p.m. when several civilians garnered attention towards a common goal; to end racial discrimination and police brutality to the people of color. Although this protest lasted only about ten minutes, the civilized behavior these protesters displayed was phenomenal and grabbed hold of many witnesses whose cars had been held on the highway. With the advancement in the media, these protesters sought an opportunity to address the first world problems and created the "Black Lives Matter" movement. This movement along with the protest have become completely justifiable in opening the minds
In the story of "Allegory of the Cave", Plato illustrates his concerning on humanity and education. By the meaning of "Allegory of the Cave", we understand the effect of education on us. Most of the people ignore the importance of teaching, and they seek to learn the knowledge of the book or other materials. Therefore, they don 't care the truth or ignore it, which leads the truth far from us. "Indeed, the very principle that education ought to be more concerned with drawing out various human potentials than with only depositing information into students owes its origin to Plato" (Burch 7). To improve people 's educational level, we should realize that what
But even if Socrates does not believe he is wise, he is still very wise. To be able to say he knows nothing because he can see the potential of the world and the potential of humans is extremely wise. The quote, “… he knows nothing and thinks that he knows. I neither know nor think that I know” shows the great wisdom that Socrates possessed.
Throughout everyday life, men and women are confronted with deciding whether to believe something or not. Plato describes a conversation with Socrates and his student in the dialogue, “The allegory of the cave,” written in 38 BC. The dialogue start out with men that are trapped in a cave and have been there their whole lives and are chained to only see their shadow as false realities. Suddenly, a man is unchained and is dragged out and discovers the truth to tell the other people in the cave. Throughout the story Socrates displays a false reality fed by the shadowcasters to the chained people; and the chains being broken to him finding the light. The Allegory of a Cave shows that most people have a hard time finding
It was during my senior year of high school in my philosophy class that I was changed by a reading/writing experience. We had to read a short story called "The Allegory of the Cave" which was taught by the prestigious philosopher Socrates, but written by his protege Plato. At first I really didn 't want to do this assignment, it sounded kind of boring. But once I actually did it, it turned out to be a really interesting story. It made me think deeper into everything I do, and it showed me different perceptions on what is happening. This paper, for example, it took me forever to understand what the assignment actually meant. I was thinking too deep into it, thus making it harder for me to start and pick a topic. What I really trying to accomplish