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Analysis of plato's allegory of the cave
Analysis of plato's allegory of the cave
Analysis of plato's allegory of the cave
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After graduation of my high school, I’ve decided not to attend college. I spent over three months preparing for college admissions. Over three months of studying for the SAT and writing essays for colleges. But, all this hard work was blown away in just a week. The week before the May 1st, the decision day, I had made my decision not to attend college. I have decided to return to my country and start working. Of course, there was a strong disagreement from my parents, but I didn’t hesitate. For the past years, I have worked in many different kinds of places and I have faced the true reality. This made me want to attend college and brought me to Concordia College. In the Plato’s allegory of “ The Cave” the Shadow refers to the illusion of the reality. People in the cave believed that the shadow of an objection was a true form. They had limited knowledge because they only believed in the shadow. When I first saw all the accepted college expenses, I was horrified. The 4 years of my college tuition were worthy of an enormous house in Las Vegas. I immediately thought College is a waste of money and time. To be honest, I didn’t wanted to study no more. Twelve years of studying was …show more content…
Chain symbolizes restriction. People in the cave were restricted by the chains. Just like the people in the cave, there were restrictions on me. For example, the college expense is part of the reason that I decided to not to go to college. College tuition could also be pain for other students. In the United States, high ranked universities are considered to be more expensive than any others’. People cannot attend if they don’t have money to afford. If I master my education, I would have broad open opportunities that would be available. Now days, education seems to be mandatory. Our society seems to be packed with limitations. That is also why I decided to attend Concordia College to absorb knowledge and impact on our
As people, we tend to believe everything we see. Do we ever take the time to stop and think about what is around us? Is it reality, or are we being deceived? Reality is not necessarily what is in front of us, or what is presented to us. The environment that we are placed or brought up has a great impact on what we perceive to be the truth or perceive to be reality. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most significant attempts to explain the nature of reality. The cave represents the prisoners, also known as the people. They are trapped inside of a cave. They are presented with shadows of figures, and they perceive that to be reality. The cave can be used as a
Plato's Allegory of the Cave, presents Socrates instructing one of his students to imagine that there was a cave that was totally dark, except from the light that comes from the entrance and from a fire. The student was instructed then to imagine that the inhabitants of the cave have their necks and legs chained to the wall, impossible for the inhabitants to move. The people who control the cave place objects in front of the fire so that the inhabitants of the cave only see the shadows of the objects that the people want them to see. The chained inhabitants never get to see the real objects, only the distorted images of the objects. Furthermore, the inhabitants of the cave perceive the distorted objects as real, not the actual objects as being real. Socrates, then tells the student to imagine if the inhabitants of the cave were suddenly freed of the chains. The inhabitants would be in agonizing pain, for the first time in their lives the individuals can stand and move their heads. Their bodies are not used to being in such positions. The inhabitants of the cave, now are able to behold the light glimmering outside the cave. The inhabitants who were only adapted to only darkness, perceive light. The light stabs at their eyes, it is too painful for these individ...
In "The Allegory of the Cave," prisoners in a cave are forced to watch shadows as people behind them are forced to accept these shadows as reality -- "To them... the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. One prisoner, however, is released, and stumbles into the real world, containing more depth and complexity than they had ever known. At first, the prisoner will be pained at the bright, piercing light, but will eventually recover. According to Plato, the freed prisoner is then obligated to return to the shadows of the cave, to inform the shackled prisoners left behind of the real world. The prisoners, however, will not believe the freed prisoner, and may even go as afra s to kill him for such "lies" contrary to their "reality." The pursuit of the truth is, therefor, a painstaking but rewarding process. According to Plato, the physical world is a world of sight, one that lacks meaning if left alone. Only those who manage to break into the sunlight from the cave will ascend to the intellectual world. The prisoners in the shadows only know of the dull physical world, while those who ascend into the sunlight learn of the spiritual world, and are exposed to the first hints of truth. The soul ascends upward into the realm of goodness and of the truth, where "... souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell.." The pursuit of goodness and of the truth, then, improves the soul, as the soul desires to be elevated to a higher state of knowledge and morality. Caring for the self and the soul involves freeing the shackles of the physical world and ascending to the "... world of knowledge... the universal author of all things beautiful and right... and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual..." The soul yearns to dwell in a world of morality and knowledge, and only the pursuit of
The allegory of the cave is an enlightening philosophical work made by Greek Philosopher, Plato. The allegory portrays people as sponges and that they only know as much as they are told, whether it is true or not and it compares the effect of education and the lack of it in human nature. Plato’s allegory of the cave is highly comparable to the movie called “The Truman Show”, which some may argue is a modern adaptation that is more relatable today. It shares some of the main themes of the allegory, for example the seven symbols of the cave: the light/fire, the shadows, the breaking of the chains, the prisoners, the free prisoner, the cave, and the real objects. The allegory of the cave is a very disputable idea which many do not understand.
To begin, Plato’s Allegory of the cave is a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon and its main purpose, as Plato states is to, “show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened.”(Plato) The dialogue includes a group of prisoners who are captive in a cave and chained down, only with the ability to stare straight at a wall. This wall, with the help of a fire, walkway, and people carrying different artifacts and making sounds, create a shadow and false perception of what is real. This concept here is one of the fundamental issues that Plato brings up in the reading. “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.” (Plato). These prisoners, being stuck in this cave their entire life have no other option but to believe what they see on the wall to be true. If they were to experience a real representation of the outside world they would find it implausible and hard to understand. “When any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up a...
In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, there are prisoners kept in a cave. These prisoners have no exposure to the outside world. They are chained up to chairs in the cave and only have a huge blank wall to stare at. The guards in the cave make shadows on the wall by holding up objects in front of the fire. The shadows produced by the object show the prisoners a little bit of what the outside world looks like. They get to see the outline of the object that they are shown and have to assume that the shadows are perfect representations of what it actually looks like in the real world. The prisoners don't get to have their own ideas of what the world is like. They are ...
To sum up, Plato’s allegory of cave depicts the human condition, each of us is a prisoner chained down with distorted illusion of reality. To gain individual autonomy one must awaken the unconsciousness, we must kill our imperfection and liberate one’s senses. We cannot accomplish individual autonomy by watching what’s on the screen, but rather using our own consciousness, begin a Gnostic path, and enlightened each other, hence we can build our own philosophical ideologies and get out of the ignorance, that is the cave.
Plato’s allegory of the cave include the light, the objects, and the shadows. The novel named “The Picture of Dorian Grey” contains a purposeful meaning for each key component. In the cave, individuals are shown the shadows of puppets which they consider their reality; however, it’s only a “fake” representation of reality. Just as Dorian Grey’s beautiful appearance was merely a “fake” copy of himself when he was pure and innocent, it never disappeared because of his immortality. Yet, when the individuals have been shown the objects, they are skeptical about the “true” reality, not knowing that they are seeing the truth behind the shadows. Similar to the picture of Dorian Grey, which portrayed his ghastly appearance, contained his true-self
Plato does a great job in incorporating the Theory of forms into the Allegory of the cave. With this intention he demonstrated it in an unclear way but it was visible. The trapped people in the cave represent us (regular people) who can only see the shadows of the true forms. The outside world of the cave represents the belief where the true form of sensible objects lie. This is due to the fact that the pioneer believed that the sun is the reason for everything around him , the flowers , the trees and the grass. Lastly , the sun represents the source of good because it is the main source of all
To be blunt, I applied to attend CC because I horsed around my freshman, sophomore and partially my junior year. I didn’t try to get any foreign language credits, algebra 2, or prep for college at all. I was focused on passing well enough not to get grounded. Now that I’m so close to graduation I am seeing where I went wrong with that method, and I want to be a Veterinarian. To be this, I need to have those credits to attend the university I want to, and I also need a stronger transcript. I am hoping that by attending CC I can strengthen these things and work to be a better student.
Plato, a famous Greek philosopher and a student of Socrates who wrote the Allegory of the Cave, attempts to answer some of the philosophical questions, most notably about the nature of reality. He tells the 'Allegory of the Cave' as a conversation between his mentor, Socrates, who inspired many of Plato's philosophical theories, and one of Socrates' students, Glaucon. The allegory symbolizes the world as a dark cave with humans as trapped prisoners, and all of our experiences shadows on a wall. Through vivid imagery, Plato’s symbolism creates a message and enlightens the minds of those who turn away from intellectualism.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, presented in The Republic, is one of the most famous extended metaphors in the history of philosophy. In the scenario, which Plato attributes to Socrates, a group of people are chained to a cave wall. They have been in this position all their lives and they can only see in one direction, toward the back of the cave. On the wall they see shadowy images being reflected in front of them. Since these people cannot turn their heads to see what makes the shadows, the chained people assume the shadows are all there is to reality. When one of the prisoners is released, he must be forced to turn around. The prisoner sees the shadows being projected on the wall are, in fact, created by an enormous fire at the mouth of the
The saying goes that “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Perhaps it is fitting, then, that in his Allegory of the Cave, Plato uses the image of a cave to illustrate the effects of education on the human soul and how the symbolism represented in the allegory ties in to a broader discussion of one of Plato’s main philosophical ideas, the Theory of Forms. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato (who is speaking as Socrates to one of his students, Glaucon) asks us to imagine an underground cave in which a group of prisoners have lived since birth. The prisoners are chained to the ground and are positioned in such a way that they can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. Thus, the prisoners’ world has been reduced to a world of darkness, and the only thing that is real to them is the shadows and echoes of passersby as they walk past the mouth of the cave. But, Socrates goes on to say, the reality that the prisoners perceive is a false one; it is only by being dragged
When you think of college, you don’t question if it is a good or bad investment for starting your future. Most people would say that college is the best decision you will ever make, but Stephanie Owen and Isabel Sawhill, estimate the rate of return to education in “Should Everyone Go to College?” Two important factors to consider when thinking about your college career include the type of institution you want to attend and the field of study you are going into. Not all people have the same college experience and many college students get degrees that have low average income earnings.
Last Thursday’s class was a reminder that poverty can be a constant cycle. One specific example was about “day of” lenders, who provide money up front with extremely high interest rates knowing the debtor could potentially be unable to repay their debts. In this case penalty charges can keep increasing the amount of money one owes and simultaneously start to dig a deeper and deeper hole. This example felt all too real, because as a student it almost seems impossible to start off life after college without having to take out some type of loan(s). It could be money for a vehicle all the way to buying a home, but either way you need to be able to pay off your debt by finding a job(s) with a wage that can. I hope to never find myself in a