Analysis of The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, and Dualism

knowledge? What is reality? These are the philosophical concepts that many renowned philosophers have concentrated on for centuries. One of these philosophers who was particularly concerned with this question was Plato. In an attempt to answer these questions, he wrote the “Allegory of the Cave” using the metaphor of the allegory to contrast reality with true enlightenment. Plato uses the dark of ignorance and the light of the accent into true knowledge to paint a picture of an individual’s rise to the understanding of true reality. The “Allegory of the Cave” is also used to represent Plato’s theory of dualism. Dualism is the idea of a world made up of material things, such as the physical form and immaterial things, such as the mind, but that do not necessarily depend on each other to exist. This glimpse into Plato’s teachings will include an explanation of the “Allegory of the Cave,” and some thoughts on whether dualism exists or Plato is wrong in his claim that reality is beyond the material world.

Plato’s allegory of the cave is an example of what Plato deems “the accent of the mind to true knowledge.” In the parable, the prisoners at the bottom of the cave represent the obliviousness of humans to what Plato believes constitutes true knowledge. What they judge to be reality is only a shadow depicted on the wall of the cave. These obscurities are all the prisoners have known of their lives and realities, and so they do not question them, leaving them in blissful ignorance of the world above them or what Plato likens to “true knowledge.” If one of the prisoners were suddenly released from the chains that hold him in his current state of ignorance, the movement would be uncomfortable, even agonizing, and he would...

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...onclusion, the considerations of knowledge and reality are ones that philosophers will continue to contemplate throughout the centuries. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a wonderful attempt at trying to ascertain the answers to these inquiries with its revealing comparisons that contrast the darkness of ignorance and the light of the sun to knowledge to demonstrate an individual’s journey up and out of the cave to the immaterial world of heaven and a state of true enlightenment. The allegory also illustrates Plato’s ideal of dualism by liberating knowledge from any dependency on anything material or physical. This excursion into Plato’s teachings illuminated the “Allegory of the Cave” in detail, and affirmed the question that dualism does, undeniably, exist and that Plato is correct in his ideal that reality does, without a doubt, go beyond the material world.