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Analyse the artwork: The Persistence of Memory, Salvador Dali,1931. Oil on canvas
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Reality for everyone is different, and anyone can interpret it in many different ways. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and Salvador Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory” show us how reality can be perceived as something else. The way one see’s reality can be totally wrong to what reality really is. So, what does reality mean? Living in a world with shadows, ideas transcending the physical world, and believing that knowledge comes from what is seen and heard can confuse what reality is perceived as.
Humans live in a world that is filled with shadows. And just like the men in the cave shadows can be our only proof of reality. And to a certain point believe that shadows are al that there is in this world. However, should one believe that shadows are the only proof of reality? For the men in the cave shadows were the only thing that they knew to be reality. The men in the cave even admitted it: “Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave” (868). The men thought that everyone else was like them, sitting down and watching shadows pass by; and that was reality. In Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory” there are clocks with shadows behind them or they are being cover by them. This can be represented as the clocks being time and reality, the shadows covering them can represent that time and reality is false. Also in the painting one can notice that a big shadow covers most of the land in the painting; meaning that the idea of land (reality) is fake and can be something else. Both the shadows on the wall in the cave and behind the clocks in the painting represent a false perception of the truth.
“If curiosity kille...
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...he physical world, and believing that knowledge comes from what is seen and heard can confuse what reality is perceived as. Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” and Salvador Dali’s painting “The Persistence of Memory” show us how realities can be confusing and turn out to be something different. However, each and every one has a reality of his or her, to which they believe is true. If so, hopefully that reality is rational.
Works Cited
Black, H. 2013. a quote by Holly Black. [online] Available at: http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/259646-if-curiosity-killed-the-cat-it-was-satisfaction-that-brought [Accessed: 15 Nov 2013].
Dali, Salvador. “The Persistance of Memory.” A World of Ideas. 9th ed. Ed. Lee A.Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013.Print
Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” A World of Ideas. 9th ed. Ed. Lee A.Jacobus. Boston: Bedford/St.Martins, 2013.Print
In society it is a person’s duty to teach others what they do not know. People do not need to tell others of their knowledge, but in order for society to function together people must all be taught the basics of reality. In the parable “Allegory of the Cave” the author and philosopher, Plato, uses hypothetical situation, rhetorical questions, and diction to tell his audience that a person’s reality depends on the environment they are raised in, and how it is the responsibility of the ones knowledgeable to teach others so society can thrive with most of the same beliefs.
What is reality? An enduring question, philosophers have struggled to identify its definition and basic concept since the beginning of time. Plato, in his provocative essay, The Cave, used symbols and images to ridicule and explain how humanity easily justifies their current reality while showing us that true wisdom and enlightenment lies outside this fabricated version of reality. If he were alive in modern times, he would find society unchanged; still uneducated and silently trapped in our own hallucination of reality with only the glimmer of educational paths available. While this may be a bleak comparison, it is an accurate one as the media influences of today present a contrasting picture of education and ignorance that keeps us trapped
What we see is not the truth, but rather our interpretation and distortion of the things we struggle to perceive, as our imagination fuses with our conception of reality. We conceptualize these omnipotent forces through our uses of symbols – to create an understandable world through abstractions – in order to explain what these forces are. [INTRODUCE CAPRA]
In the Allegory of the cave, Plato stated "what he had seen before was a cheat and an illusion, but that now, being near to reality and turned toward more real things, he saw more truley." It appeals to me because he's basically inferring what if what we are seeing or what we believe are just our figments of our imagination. A lie that we dwell on, because we are blinded from the truth. Plato statement is something we can all relate. For instance children from our younger years our parents disguise parts of reality to prevent them to live a life of fear. Fear of evil and fear from being hurt. But we as grow older we learn, that there is hate and evil in the world. We learn that not every corner has a rainbow glistening in the sky. And for that
In chapter ten of the book “Problems from Philosophy”, by James Rachels, the author, the author discusses the possibilities of human beings living in an actually reality, or if we are just living in an illusion. Rachels guides us through concepts that try to determine wiether we are living in a world were our perception of reality is being challenged, or questioned. Rachels guides us through the topic of “Our Knowledge of the World around Us”, through the Vats and Demons, idealism, Descartes Theological Response, and direct vs. indirect realism.
Sometimes, what we see and remember is not always accurate or real. For instance, Gould talked about a trip that he took to the Devils tower when he was fifteen, he remember that he can see the Devils tower from afar and as he approaches it, it rises and gets bigger. However, about thirty years later, Gould went back to see the Devils tower with his family, he wanted to show them the awesome view of the Devils tower when it rises as they approach closer to it, but when they got there everything was different from what he remembered. Then he found out that the Devils tower that he saw when he was younger wasn’t really...
The "Allegory" depicts a number of people who are imprisoned in a cave, chained by the legs and neck so that they cannot move, nor can they turn their heads; they see only towards the back wall opposite the cave opening. These people have been chained in this manner their entire lives. Sometimes objects and people pass in front of the cave opening, and shadows play upon the back wall. Since the people have only seen the shadows, they assume that the shadows are the real objects and beings of the world. They watch the shadows, measuring them, trying to understand them, and soon honors are bestowed upon those persons who can see the...
In the second stage, the cave dweller can now see the objects that previously only appeared to him as shadows. “Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer th...
As people, we tend to believe everything we see. Do we ever take the time to stop and think about what is around us? Is it reality, or are we being deceived? Reality is not necessarily what is in front of us, or what is presented to us. The environment that we are placed or brought up has a great impact on what we perceive to be the truth or perceive to be reality. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most significant attempts to explain the nature of reality. The cave represents the prisoners, also known as the people. They are trapped inside of a cave. They are presented with shadows of figures, and they perceive that to be reality. The cave can be used as a
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away.” -Philip K. Dick
Salvador Dali is a master of the art of surrealism and perhaps the world’s greatest Spanish artist. He is well known for his extraordinary bizarre paintings, where he depicts dream worlds that is illogical and irrational. One of Dali’s famous work is The Persistence of Memory, this painting explored the ideas about dreams, fantasies and fears. Most of the Dali’s painting is about his experience and his interests. Sigmund Freud was a big influence to Dali, He was fascinated about his psychoanalysis theories, it inspired him to develop a technique called paranoiac critical method where creating a work of art, it uses an active process of the mind to visualize images in the work and combine these into the final product (Wikipedia). In the early stages of Dali’s career most of his works are created on his hometown of Figueres, Spain on the rocky coastline of the Cadaques here
What we see is not the truth, but rather our interpretation and distortion of the things we struggle to perceive. Our imagination, ideologies and perceptions fuse with our conception of reality, as we transform the world around us, give meanings to abstractions, and find order in a world programmed by madness. We are prone to madness, to nature, to the metaphorical forces that influence and envelop reality. In order to understand the metaphysical realm, we conceptualize these divine, omnipotent forces through our uses of symbols, thus creating an understandable world defined by rationality and philosophy thinking. Philosophical thinking and rationality enable us to both understand our world metaphorical and define what humanity is. These ideas
The Idols of the Cave represent the illusions of the individual. Everyone has their own "cave" which alters their opinions differently, depending upon their...
Salvador Dali is a Spanish artist known for being a key figure in Surrealism, which began as a cultural movement before transitioning to an artistic movement. Surrealism was invented by a French poet, writer, and art critic named Guillaume Apollinaire. It was influenced by history because it was a product of an unstable time due to the First World War, which Guillaume Apollinaire fought in and used for inspiration (Bohn 1). Surrealism experimented with a new mode of expression which sought to release the unbridled imagination of the subconscious. It became an international intellectual and political movement (James 1). A famous psychologist concerned with the subconscious mind was Sigmund Freud. He was another
In terms of reality and being, there are many different parts. By looking through matters of ideas, altered perception and virtual realities, we have explored the parts of philosophy that prove to be complicated, yet interesting. Plato and Aristotle were both dead set on the idea that things should be seen as they actually are, and that humans perceptions on reality will always be different than what actually is. Because each person works differently and processes things differently, we are led to believe that reality is also different for each