Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

A good example of Plato’s divided line is represented in the Cave Allegory, which is one of the core messages of his philosophical works. Plato used a line as an illusion to divide human knowledge into four levels, which differ in degree and clarity. Taking a line and dividing the line into two sections not equal in length; the upper level equates to knowledge, this is the realm of intellect. On the lower section of the line equates to opinion and is the world of sensory knowledge. Then cut these lines into two sections, this produces four line segments. This visual gives us four cognitive states of thinking. These states of thinking are as follows: Noesis, Dianoia, Pistis, and Eikasia.

First, Noesis is the faculty associated with immediate

Within the cave there are three prisoners who are unable to turn their heads and their arms and legs bound. The only thing the prisoners can see is the wall of the cave in front of them. The prisoners have been imprisoned within the cave since birth and have never seen outside of the cave. Behind the prisoners is a fire giving off light and between them is a elevate walkway. The prisoners cannot see the puppeteers. The puppeteers hold up puppets that cast a shadow upon the wall and various objects are carried back and forth all resulting in shadows on the wall. Prisoners can only see shadows and only hear echoes; casted by object they cannot see. One day a prisoner breaks free and sees what is behind the three prisoners that make shadows. He now has more knowledge of his reality. Eventually the prisoner makes his way out of the cave and sees the sunlight and objects.

As he becomes accustom his new surroundings; he realizes life is not what he thought it was, instead his reality is wrong. He returns to the cave to tell the other prisoners the truth. They do not believe him and threaten to kill him; they do not want to be set free. The cave allegory refers to his leaving behind the impermanent, material world for the permanent intelligible world. The cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the