Plato's Use of Metaphor of Shadows in His Allegory of the Cave

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Plato's Use of Metaphor of Shadows in His Allegory of the Cave Plato uses his Allegory of the Cave to explain to people the awareness of his realm of forms. Plato uses the prisoners in the cave to symbolise the people without the knowledge of the Theory of Forms. Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows. The rare individual escapes the cave and, through a long journey-discovers a higher realm, a true reality, with an awareness of Goodness as the origin of everything that exists. Plato was trying to get people to understand that we are like the prisoners in the cave. What we think are animals, tables, flowers etc are really only shadows of the true Forms. We, like the prisoners are happy with what we know.. The essential point is that the prisoners (we) in the cave are not seeing reality, but only a shadowy representation of it. The importance of the allegory lies in Plato's beli...

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