Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is the most significant and influential analogy in his book, The Republic. This thorough analogy covers many of the images Plato uses as tools throughout The Republic to show why the four virtues, also known as forms, are what create good. The “Allegory of the Cave”, however, is not one of the simplest representations used by Plato. Foremost, to comprehend these images such as the “divided line” or Plato’s forms, one must be able to understand this allegory and all of its metaphors behind it.

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.”

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...n making believers to his word, yet in the end he was executed, in the accusation of corrupting the youth, simply because the rest of the people didn’t desire change as Socrates did.

"The Allegory of the Cave," by Plato, explains that people experience emotional and intellectual exposures throughout the different stages of their lives. From the protection of parents during childhood to the harsh findings of what life has to provide as we are free to do as we please as adults. Despite the fact that Plato’s Theory of Forms was proved incorrectly it is still an thorough explanation of what to expect and what is to be awaiting for us in the forthcoming of our lives.

Works Cited

http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Form_of_the_Good

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (line 23)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor_of_the_sun