Comparing Plato's Apology And The Cave Parable

Both Plato’s Apology and the “Cave Parable” main concept is the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. People see reality as what a is visible for them about the world when reality is much more that what we can see. The “Allegory of the Cave” begins with the assumption that if any group of prisoners had their necks and hands chained down in a cave, they would only be able to see what is in front of them and not what is behind themselves. With a fire that is put behind them, they would be capable to seeing shadows of images that somebody else will create. As time progressed, the prisoners began to identify and notices the different shadows. However, if any of the prisoners was to climb out of the cave, he would not be able

to see anything at first because the light would be so blinding. But as his eyes gradually adjust to the light and he/she would begin to see images more clearly. this light will enable the prisoner to see the true image and not just the shadow of the image. If this prisoner was to go back to the cave, he/she would find that it would be impossible to conform back to his old world. At first he would not be able to identify shadows because his eyes would not yet be adjusted to the darkness in the cave. If the returning prisoner were to tell the other prisoners about the light and that their shadows were not real images, they would not believe him and would accuse him of trying to disrupt their way of life. Finally, since this prisoner that when out could no longer fit in, the others prisoners would kill him/her.

Plato also argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. It is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles, but the process is painful. When the cave slaves (ourselves) climb from the cave (perceive and understand ideas), we see the world for how it should be. We see that ideas are eternal and perfect, even though the physical world crumbles.

Plato’s Apology can be read as a dramatic enactment of the “Cave Parable” as it presents how Socrates challenge the barriers to knowing/desires that can keep us imprisoned to conventional beliefs just as the people on the cave where.

In the Apology, the cave is Athens, Greece and the prisoners represents the Athenian citizens, who are captive to ignorance about justice or virtue. They are unable to question what they see and hear. They accept what comes in front of them as the truth without questioning it.The chains are the willingness to believe the conventional beliefs and reluctance/resistance to questioning that the Athenian population lack. The shadows/ shadow makers are the people in power who are the storytellers that created those conventional beliefs of reality. Those conventional beliefs include wealth/material possessions, reputation/status, bodily goods(sex, confort, desire, etc), and power. If these are our guiding values, they may mislead us quite profoundly becuase people is just manipulating the process to benefit themselves and hurt others. Socrates notices that that these values are held as ultimate by Athenians;however, these things leave out many other things such as justice, virtue, and friendship. The liberator/liberating message was Socrates, who challenged the conventional notion of well-being/human flourishing of the Athenians. Socrates also believed that a commitment to these things are a barrier to knowing reality as it is. Both Plato’s Apology and the “Cave Parable” elevates our need for a liberator because our hunger for knowledge can clash with other hungers and lead us to embrace non truths. The Apology describes how the Athenians(prisoners) were unable to turn their head away from what they see or what society presents them with. Socrates awakes from this illusion and throughout his life he tries to tell others, who are chained that there is another reality outside the cave and their conditional beliefs of a well-being. Socrates

wished to change the way in which his contemporaries viewed the world. Socrates believed “the unexamined life is not worth living”,in truth above all else, and that no one knows very much at all.

Socrates challenge the status code to replace our ignorance with knowledge and understanding. I do agree with Socrates, coming from a developing country convetional believes are held very strong by the community as a whole. The lack of education and family planning created sexist standards, where now women were degraded and thought of being important only because of reproduction. In Guatemala, because of the poor conditions we have there, as well as experienced, and born into, girls are married at a young age; where girls are always made into possessions of someone else.Thus, people try very hard to have daughters in their family so that they can marry them into wealthy men's household. But because I did not marry at a certain age to which girls were required and bond to. I made this decision despite the beliefs of my family and the community, because I wanted to end the loop of poverty and prejudice, thus allowing me, while giving me the chance to be an advocate for women's education as well as men. I woke up from my ignorance, which allow me to see that reality was much more than material wealth, power, repution, etc. However, when I changelle my own family to break the reality imposed by our society, they will not able to handle it and push me away. As a child, I always questioned everything, even my own existence. Over the year, I came to reality that the path of knowledge is something that as an individual I had to do is alone. Also, that ideas are so infused in society that is nearly impossible to break them; however, just as Socrates, I was able to challenge life and the way we live life.