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Critique of platos ideas and influence
The contributions of Plato to western civilization
Explanation of the allegory of the cave
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Plato is one of the most iconic authors in the history of philosophy. Even today, his words live strong in modern thinking and society. He was a highly spoken citizen of Athens (Kraut, 2013). His input in the politics and the society of Athenian life made him a major player in the success of democracy in ancient civilization (Kraut, 2013). Being one of the first real “philosophers” in history, Plato was looked up to by scholars of that time, as well as current philosophers of our time. His most influential work of writing is The Republic where he makes many assumptions while also including ideas and conversations with other thinkers of the time like Socrates and Thrasymachus (Kraut, 2013). Current and future thinkers will forever interpret Plato’s work for centuries to come.
One of the most interpreted works by Plato includes his Allegory of the Cave. This is a mental depiction of a cave with prisoners chained inside of it. The prisoners face the wall and watch as shadows are cast upon it. What is casting the shadows are the puppets that are being enlightened by “the Fire”. Plato believes that living the “just life” is the idea of breaking out of the chains that the “prisoners” wear and discovering “the Fire”, which is an analogy for being enlightened, then coming back to enlighten those who are still chained and imprisoned then teaching them what you just uncovered in order for them to “see the Fire”. He believes that in doing this, you would be educating those who would not know where to look for enlightenment. The “Prisoners” view of reality is that of which they see on the wall. Plato describes philosophers as those who escape from the chains and see the bigger picture of reality. He also thinks that philosophers can differen...
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...ss mixed up and that the time is under the line and timeless is above it (Fraser, 1990). Fraser has less to pick apart on Plato’s Cave, and more to pick apart about his theory of knowledge.
Many different people of all kinds of levels of study have interpreted Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. The Cave has been the center point for philosophers trying to discover the reason to enlighten. Interpretations have varied of the Cave, but most of them have stayed on track and similar to the original message that Plato was trying to depict. Even today we see the relevance of The Cave in society. Although the Allegory of the Cave is a small portion of The Republic, it stands as one of the most influential parts of past and modern philosophy. Plato will be relevant for years to come and future scholars and thinkers will review his works in order to become enlightened themselves.
Plato is one of the most familiar and commonly studied philosophers. His work is of the highest intelligence and full of thought-provoking attributes. Plato’s “Allegory Of The Cave” is perhaps one of the works most easily related to life. This allegory creates a sense of advancing into the “light” of understanding and knowledge.
Portraying the prisoners inside the cave for a lifetime further describes his beliefs on how closed minded society is in his opinion. The “light outside the cave” explains how he feels knowledge is the source of light to everyone’s lives. Without knowledge, there is lack of light. Also, since society does not want to gain further knowledge, they will seem to stay stuck in the dark tunnel. Plato also uses personification to give reader insight on how someone may treat the earth and appreciate it. For example, Plato states “Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.” The reasoning behind this is to explain how a man would reason with the sun as if it were an actual speaking person. The style of Plato’s writing gives readers an understanding on why his work is named “Allegory of the Cave”. The use of his rhetorical devices give deeper meanings to the Earth and the nature it
In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” he suggests that there are two different forms of vision, a “mind’s eye” and a “bodily eye.” The “bodily eye” is a metaphor for the senses. While inside the cave, the prisoners function only with this eye. The “mind’s eye” is a higher level of thinking, and is mobilized only when the prisoner is released into the outside world. This eye does not exist within the cave; it only exists in the real, perfect world.
A great example would be education. In school, students are always taught the knowledge of various subjects simply to apply them for work, school, or life. This is similar to the prisoners who are chained up, and only comprehend the noises and see the shadows. Both are taught to understand the skills, without quite understanding the more complex processes in which create them. Yet, when an individual questions the authority or reliability of a certain learning task, they are seen as an introvert and are often made fun on and deemed unintelligent. However, Even Though this may see a bit out of context, i feel like it strongly applies to Plato's Allegory in contrasting the enlightened individual from the general public. Another example that connects with Plato's Allegory are the debates during the Presidential Elections. Both the Democratic and Republican sides are often in contrasting views when it comes to the process of reforming or creating new laws. Both sides believe that they are in fact right, and it often results in
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" presents a vision of humans as slaves chained in front of a fire observing the shadows of things on the cave wall in front of them. The shadows are the only "reality" the slaves know. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our limited perceptions as reality, truth and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics.
The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when someone is educated to the level of philosopher. He contends that they must "go back into the cave" or return to the everyday world of politics, greed and power struggles. The Allegory also attacks people who rely upon or are slaves to their senses. The chains that bind the prisoners are the senses. The fun of the allegory is to try to put all the details of the cave into your interpretation. In other words, what are the models the guards carry? the fire? the struggle out of the cave? the sunlight? the shadows on the cave wall? Socrates, in Book VII of The Republic, just after the allegory told us that the cave was our world and the fire was our sun. He said the path of the prisoner was our soul's ascent to knowledge or enlightenment. He equated our world of sight with the intellect's world of opinion. Both were at the bottom of the ladder of knowledge. Our world of sight allows us to "see" things that are not real, such as parallel lines and perfect circles. He calls this higher understanding the world "abstract Reality" or the Intelligeble world. He equates this abstract reality with the knowledge that comes from reasoning and finally understanding. On the physical side, our world of sight, the stages of growth are first recognition of images (the shadows on the cave wall) then the recognition of objects (the models the guards carry) To understand abstract reality requires the understanding of mathematics and finally the forms or the Ideals of all things (the world outside the cave). But our understanding of the physical world is mirrored in our minds by our ways of thinking. First comes imagination (Socrates thought little of creativity), then our unfounded but real beliefs. Opinion gives way to knowledge through reasoning (learned though mathematics). Finally, the realization of the forms is mirrored by the level of Understanding in the Ways of Thinking. The key to the struggle for knowledge is the reasoning skills acquired through mathematics as they are applied to understanding ourselves. The shadows on the cave wall change continually and are of little worth, but the reality out side the cave never changes and that makes it important.
Freedom in mind, freedom in nature, and freedom in subjectivity of individual are three kinds of freedoms. However, freedom should be expressed within the limits of reason and morality. Having freedom equals having the power to think, to speak, and to act without externally imposed restrains. As a matter of fact, finding freedom in order to live free is the common idea in Plato with "The Allegory of the Cave"; Henry David Thoreau with " Where I lived and What I lived for"; and Jean Paul Sartre with " Existentialism". Generally, Plato, Thoreau, and Sartre suggested that human life should be free. They differ in what that freedom is. Plato thinks it is found in the world of intellect, Thoreau thinks freedom is found in nature, and Sartre thinks freedom is found in subjectivity of individual.
In this allegory, the depictions of humans as they are chained, their only knowledge of the world is what is seen inside the cave. Plato considers what would happen to people should they embrace the concepts of philosophy, become enlightened by it, and see things as they truly are. As we have mentioned in class, Plato’s theory did not only present itself in his allegory, but also in the Wachowski brothers’ hit film, The Matrix. In the film, the protagonist, Neo, suffers from a similar difficulty of adapting to reality, or the truth, which we will see later on. In order to understand Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, one must consider how Plato’s use of symbols to explain what true knowledge (or enlightenment) really is along with the comparisons to the Wachowski brothers’ film, The Matrix.
Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. The Allegory of the Cave is that we are chained to a wall. Behind us is another wall with figures walking across it, behind that wall is a pit of fire. The firelight casts shadows upon the wall in front of those chained to the wall. Because we are chained to the wall we believe the figures are what they represent. Plato says there times when one tries to break away from the wall but others encourage him to join back the wall as he experiences what the world truly is. Because we are chained to the wall we are afraid of the unknown. But breaking free could change the perception about the world and feel truly free. Plato also argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. However, it is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles but it’s difficult. And when we ( s...
In the essay “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato addresses how humans generally do not pursue knowledge. Most humans are satisfied with what they already know and do not want to expand their knowledge. Plato uses simple examples to help the reader understand his logic on why humans do not expand their knowledge.
Do we really understand the world we live in and see everyday? Is our everyday perception of reality a misinterpretation, which somehow we can’t break free from? A famous Greek philosopher by the name of Plato sought out to explain this in an experiment he called the Cave Allegory. I will discuss what the Cave Allegory is as well as talk about the movie Interstellar, which is a great example of Plato’s Cave Allegory and how it relates to Plato’s ideas. The question we have to answer first is, what is Plato’s Cave Allegory?
In the story “Allegory Of The Cave” it shows a life lesson on how individuals can act stubborn in the world because they are not educated or aware of certain artifacts. In this essay i will give you examples of how real life situations relate to the story “Allegory Of The Cave”. In Plato’s story “Allegory Of the Cave” there are a group of prisoners that have been chained in a dark cave their whole life not being able to turn back at all. The only contact they have with the outside world is seeing the shadows of the things that pass behind them. Then one prisoner becomes free and is able to explore the outside world. When the freed prisoner steps outside for the first time in his life the beaming sun blinds him but then gets used to the sun
He describes the Allegory of the Cave as, “Imagine human beings living in an underground, cavelike dwelling, with an entrance a long way up, which is both open to the light and as wide as the cave itself” (514a). From his brief description of the cave we can see that this sets the foundation to explaining the Divided Line through the tale. The human beings living in an underground cave like dwelling suggest the ignorance one experiences as explained in the Divided Line, the long entrance hints at the Divided Lines Hierarchy steps, and the light at the end of the cave would be knowledge as explained in the Divided Line.
In book seven of ‘The Republic’, Plato presents possibly one of the most prominent metaphors in Western philosophy to date titled ‘Allegory of the Cave’.
The Divided Line visualizes the levels of knowledge in a more systematic way. Plato states there are four stages of knowledge development: Imagining, Belief, ...