How Plato Uses the Myth of the Cave

How Plato Uses the Myth of the Cave

Could reality be the greatest special effect of all time? Since the 6th

century B.C.E a growth in human knowledge and understanding had

occurred and people began to question the world rd they lived in,

these people were called philosophers. Thales, Anaximander,

Anaximines, Pythagoras, Heraclitus and Socrates were all highly

regarded intellectuals but one man's thoughts on the world stood out.

Plato is probably the best known of al the ancient Greek philosophers.

His philosophy contributed to the evolution of many ideas about God

and films such as The Matrix. One of the most famous books about of

philosophy is Plato's The Republic. In this work Plato discusses the

nature justice, the ideal society, and who should rule it. Plato

described his view on reality using similes. He felt we must escape

from the mistake of believing that our perceptions of reality were the

truth.

Plato's Allegory of the cave is possibly the most famous passage of

all his writings. Plato expresses something of the beliefs of

learning, and the about the relationship between world of appearances

and the world of reality. The allegory begins with a description of

prisoners in a cave, who are only able to look straight ahead of

themselves because they are chained. They have a fire behind them, and

a wall in front, and the cave has a long tunnel entrance so that no

natural daylight in the cave, only the firelight. The prisoners have

been there in the cave since childhood so this is the only thing they

will know of. Behind them people are putting on a type of puppet show

but they can only see the shad...

... middle of paper ...

...chieve the pure truth. Unfortunately for a human being

there is no one there who is able to force us to look deeper we have

to achieve it by ourselves. The way in which the chapter ends is an

obvious reference about the human nature. He described how the

remaining prisoners would go as far as killing, to remain in their own

form of reality. By doing this Plato describing how the majority of

people are content with their dim reflections of reality and are not

willing to open their minds to the possibility something better.

To conclude the allegory of the cave is able to represent Plato's

ideas on the nature of reality in a way that is easier to understand

as the reader is able to relate to the example given. He uses similes

and metaphors to portray his ideas of ignorance to enlightenment and

empirical to metaphysical.