Knowledge And Enlightenment In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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“The Allegory of the Cave”, written by Plato, is a story that presents prisoners who are trapped in a cave and only able to see what is in front of them. There is a fire burning in a distance, and they can only see images in shadows coming from the fire. Since they are trapped in this cave, they believe that the shadows are real, and not just reflections of what really is. The tale goes on to say that one prisoner escaped, and talks about his first perception of the world. In the “Allegory of the Cave”, Plato uses the prisoners in the cave as a metaphor, or an allegory to express ideas about knowledge and enlightenment. Plato’s main purpose for writing the “Allegory of the Cave” is to inform his readers that it is in human nature to believe …show more content…

The prisoners in the cave are used to exemplify the state of the mind when it has not been exposed to the truth or reality. The cave in this sense represents the physical world that people are born. The prisoners are described to have been in the cave since their childhood and that because they are chained in the legs and the neck, they are only able to see what is in front of them and can only perceive shadows and …show more content…

To illustrate how knowledge is acquired in the process, Plato cites the example of one of the prisoners being set free and leaving the cave toward the light (Plato 229). Plato goes on to add that the release to freedom would not be a happy occasion but rather that to the freed prisoner “all the movements would be painful and he would be too dazzled to make out the objects whose shadows he had been used to see” (Plato 229). At this juncture, Plato is implying that the confrontation and separation of the truth from illusion is a painful encounter. Because the prisoner has been used to shadows as the truth, it takes a lot of distress for him to now comprehend the reality that underlies the shadows he is accustomed to seeing. Plato adds that if the prisoner were forced to look at the firelight by himself, his eyes would probably ache (Plato 229). Plato is implying that the process of knowing the truth and becoming enlightened challenging and requires effort on the part of the individual to face the realities. In other words, facing realities and acquiring knowledge is not an easy task, but instead a process that requires the commitment and perseverance of the person. This aspect explains why some people would rather choose to live in a world of illusions than face the discomfort that truth may

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