Plato's Allegory Of The Cave Essay

Plato’s Allegory of “The Cave”: Are we living a lie and can we truly know true forms after the fact?

Plato believed in the power of forms more so over the objects we see every day. This belief is made evident in his allegory of “The Cave” in Plato’s “Republic”. Plato weaves a tale between his mentor Socrates and a theoretical student Glaucon. In it, Socrates describes a cave where several men have been chained and restricted to only a certain point of view since childhood. They are made to face a dimly lit cave wall and can only see shadows of forms cast upon the wall behind them from a bonfire from which, forms come and go via a pathway from the outside world into the cave that sits in front of the bonfire. These men take great pride in recounting details of the shadows displayed before them, even so far as to create a hierarchy among the prisoners of who possessed the most knowledge of the shadowy illusions. Socrates then shakes things

up by saying that one of these men escapes the cave and makes his way to the surface only to be blinded by the light of the sun and the disorienting knowledge that he has been living a lie his whole life. His shock is doubled when he returns to the cave with all his discoveries and his rebuked and even violently opposed by the imprisoned men to his teachings. This allegory is used to describe the nature of man in his ignorance and the righteous philosophers of the world being scoffed at when they try to bring the “true” gospel of the world to the stubborn masses. The problem with this is that Plato assumes a lot, even assuming that the prisoner in the cave really knows the forms he sees outside are actually “True” forms to begin with. I believe that we can’t truly know forms since forms are different in other cultures and religions and maybe even other worlds entirely and who is to say that we even have access to the truth in this life.
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Weakness—“In the world of knowledge the last thing to be perceived and only with great difficulty is the essential form of goodness.” (Bruder and Moore 54). Here Plato assumes that the forms the prisoner sees are in fact “True” forms to begin with. How could you truly know that what you are seeing was real to begin with? Taking many things into account about the fictitious prisoner his health, his eye site, even his sanity, how could this prisoner truly know that what he saw in the outside world was the truth and not another even more elaborate facade? He couldn’t unless he went to the true source of things which is not yet known to us in the physical realm. Rene Descartes elaborates more on this in his ‘Evil Demon” theory in which he says “But there is a deceiver of supreme power and cunning who is deliberately and constantly deceiving me.” (Haldane and Ross 272).
Strength—“One of the primary strengths is Plato’s language and logic.

He layers his arguments one on top of the other to create a mighty tower of argumentation that is tough to crack. At times it seems obvious that Glaucon just has to agree with Socrates.” (Greg Heil). The logic in the cave although set in a fictitious story between master and pupil is sound and very well put together. While reading the allegory one seems to find themselves agreeing much like Glaucon instead of questioning like one should. “There remains therefor in a sensible object a great deal which is no object for the geometrician but falls outside his intellectual vision.” (Nettleship 254). Here Nettleship describes an object having a sensible and perceivable form and an unperceivable perfect form that lies outside the intellect. This compliments Plato’s theory of true forms. Glaucon said it best when he closed with “One who holds a true belief without intelligence is just like a blind man who happens to take the right road, isn’t he?” (Bruder and Moore

56)