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Essay on the allegory of the cave
The role of women in Plato's republic
Plato's education development
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In one of Plato’s most esteemed works, The Republic, Plato forms an ideal city called the Kallipolis with citizens and their respective roles within the city. While creating this “City of Words” Plato was faced with a dilemma, what roles would the women of the city be assigned? This paper argues that women were in fact granted a place in society that provided them with equality in the Kallipolis, and that this equality was achieved through their positioning within the guardian class. Furthermore, this equality was affirmed through their position within the ruling class. During the construction of the “City of Words” Plato tells the story of the Myth of the Metals near the end of Book 3. This story offers a solution to the controversy that …show more content…
The Allegory of the Cave illustrated the effects of education on the human soul without criticizing female gender roles. Through the stages of the cave, the three stages of the metals are implemented and the philosopher kings who are meant to be rulers and achieve the Form of the Good according to Plato. The allegory started with a group of prisoners who have lived in this cave for awhile. They are facing a wall while shackled to rocks, behind them is a fire and behind this fire were statues that were being moved around by people. On the walls the prisoners were facing they see the shadows of trees, women, and horses and make stories based on the shadows they deemed as real. These prisoners represent the working or producing class of the Kallipolos. A random prisoner was freed from the bonds and was turned to look at the fire, after a momentary confusion the prisoner sees the fire and the statues. The prisoner noticed things that were more real than the shadows which always had been taken to be reality, how the fire and statues come together to make the shadows which are copies of the real things. Next, this prisoner was dragged out the cave to the world outside and after his/her, eyes adjusted the prisoner saw the shadows, reflections and then noticing the trees, flowers and houses. The prisoner realizes how the statues are only copies of the real things outside the cave. This stage in the prisoner’s journey was considered to be the auxiliary class. The prisoner has caught his/her first glimpse of the Forms. Finally, when the prisoner’s eyes fully adjusted to the light he/she looked up and understood that the sun was the cause of everything around him/her, the colors and life he/she looked upon. The sun represents the Form of the Good. This was the final stage of the metals and this was the ruling class (517b-519b). These
Plato’s allegory of the cave, located in Book VII of The Republic is one of the most famous allegories in which he has created. This simile touches base on a number of philosophical ideas which Plato developed over the progression of The Republic (Plato, G.M.A Grube, 1993), the most noticeable being the dividing line. The dividing line is the point between the world of ideas where we live and the world of the forms which is in the heavens. This allegory of the cave helps people understand the theory on which philosophy is based. It is also in this Book where the education of the guardians is outlined.
The irrational concept of the education has been influenced moral principles concerning what is good for a society as well as for an individual; however, the understanding of the intrinsic nature of the education removes the darkness of beliefs, which Plato calls prisoners’ shadows in his writing The Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, a dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates. Although “The Plato’s Allegory of the Cave” was written thousands of years ago, Plato’s depiction of the true education is a wakeup call for our humanity to admit the acquisition of knowledge with circumspection. The truth often relies on a mistaking understanding of sight or shadow according to Plato; the truth regularly relies on prejudice which makes an individual a prisoner, and the discovery of new truth often encounters hostility. A close analysis of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave allows us to view the education as not a way to transfer knowledge, but a way to transform
In order to further comprehend Plato’s analogy and thought behind “Allegory of the Cave”, we are obliged to learn of his uprising as a philosopher and what his beliefs were. Plato was originated from a wealthy, noble family in Athens, Greece and pursued a career in politics until the execution of his teacher Socrates, then he had turned to lecturing philosophy himself. “Unlike his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings are in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. The allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers.”
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender plays a very significant role. While women were not the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of humans, they still had tremendous influence. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are male, women did not play a necessarily minor role. With all the women that play a role in the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender is a topic worthy of discussion.
Women have given birth to new generations for centuries and have the common stereotype of being caring and gentle. But in the creation myth, women were given to man as a punishment. In the book of collected Greek tales, " Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes", by Edith Hamilton, women take up important roles that shape each story. Although women are usually characterized as being helpful and motherly, Greek mythology, on the other hand, portrays them to cause distress, fear, and anxiety to numerous men. Women’s actions are shown to be influenced with jealousy and vengeance which gives them an evil nature.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” symbolizes society and the restraints held on society. The different aspects of the allegory represent the parts of society and factors that affect it. In my life, it can symbolize school and the restraints held on my education. Although new knowledge can be gained, limitations and authority figures can prevent people from learning new things.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is meant to represent knowledge we wish to seek. In order to obtain true knowledge we first need to escape what we think we already know, sense experience. The Cave represents society, the true reality in which we dwell on. The Sunlight when the prisoner is being released represents truth and new knowledge that is being aquired. It helped him see the world clearly for what it really is, instead of being in the darkness of the cave seeing the shadows casted by the fire behind him. The prisoners in the Cave represent common humans in society, who are ignorant and only have knowledge in what they want to know and nothing beyond that. The shadows represent what we perceive. We accept appearance for reality. For example
"The unexamined life is not worth living." This quote stated by the famous philosopher Socrates goes on to explain the importance of the study of philosophy and understanding the world in which humans inhabit. The study of philosophy seeks to contemplate and understand the many questions regarding existence and reality. Philosophy has the power to question everything that requires a deeper explanation or understanding. It is a study that helps us to discover the nature of truth and knowledge. Students attending a Catholic secondary school should be required to take a philosophy course for a number of reasons. The studying of the most important questions in existence results in gaining more understanding and wisdom. In accordance with reasoning,
The symbolism in the allegory of the cave is critical because every element is symbolic of something greater. The first and foremost object in the allegory is the cave itself, “an underground cave with a long entrance open to the light across the whole width of the cave” (Plato, 365). In the allegory the prisoners have been stuck in the cave all their lives -“in this they have been since childhood” (Plato, 365), and because it is their only known reality, it is for them the world: “such persons would certainly believe that there were no realities except those of shadows and handmade things” (Plato, 366). Unambiguously, the cave encompasses unenlightened society, but in a broader sense it symbolizes anything people are trapped in unknowingly. Another critical part of the allegory is the fire. The prisoners who are stuck in the cave are being shown a fake reality using puppets and fire “shadows,
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is an emblematic explanation of his eidos, and where we are introduced to his epistemology and he makes the distinctions between metaphysics and ideologies. The common interpretation of Plato’s allegory is that we all undergo the illusion of the shadows on the cave wall and that true reality only exists outside of the cave and beyond our ability to conceptualize its existence, unless one can free their mind from the intrinsic perceptual confines of their own mind. The insight that Plato conveys through his allegory is quite profound and while unfortunate, I have come to believe is applicable to nearly all humans; though a fraction of humanity eventually is able to break free. The epiphany of having lived comparably
The word allegory is a noun in which it means, " a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one." Keeping this in mind the story “The Allegory of the Cave” written by Plato over twenty-five hundred years ago tells a mini story about a group of men that were chained up in a cave since birth with no knowledge of the outside world. They sit in a row next to each other facing a blank wall mostly in the darkness. Even though there is a fire above and behind them, there is only a dim light that casts into the cave. The fire can be seen through a window, however, the men are unaware the "fire" and of their own shadows due to a long wall in front of the fire. As the men sit in that same spot not able to turn their necks because of the wooden blank holding
The Allegory of the Cave, written by Plato, tells a theoretical story of a cave. This dark cave was home to a group of people who had never before left the cave. The people, who were chained to the ceiling, were contented to watch shadows of the outside world. Never being exposed to life outside the cave, the chained people believed the shadows to be real objects. One day, a prisoner is able to escape the cave and experienced the light of the sun. The prisoner finally understood the differences between actual, tangible things and shadows. Thrilled by his discovery, the prisoner returned to the cave to inform the other prisoners. Unfortunately, the other prisoners refused to believe him and rejected his findings. The moral of the allegory is that only the best of humanity is brave enough to go beyond the familiar and embrace a greater truth. Over the course of time, people have experienced this enlightenment and been able to relate it to Plato’s scenario. Three examples of this are Adam and Eve, the Mayan Lord and the goddess, Daphne. Similar to the prisoner, after learning about the unknown, they are often met with great trials.
Often times people inquiry us, “Why we're here?” I’m present in this world because I was destined to be here. I attend to this school because it was my decision to come here. I made it to my freshman year of college because I performed well in high school, studied, imposed all my work and dedicated my time to get a better future. When I came to the United States, English was not my forte. However, I did not want to let this obstacle to hold me down. I was determined to prove to my family that I can become someone to be proud of .
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
Plato, a student of Socrates, in his book “The Republic” wrote an allegory known as “Plato's Cave”. In Plato's allegory humans are trapped within a dark cave where they can only catch glimpses of the world above through shadows on the wall.2 Plato is describing how the typical human is. They have little knowledge and what they think they know has very little basis in fact. He describes these people as prisoners, in his allegory, and they are only free when they gain knowledge of the world above the cave.