Explain the symbolism in Plato’s analogy of the cave. Plato used the analogy of the cave to illustrate his idea of the world of forms. Inside the cave there was several prisoners who had been chained up all their life and had never once been outside the cave. They faced a single wall of the cave and could not see the entrance. Sometimes animals, birds, people and other objects passed by the entrance of the cave casting a shadow on the wall inside the cave.
There are human beings in a dark cave, bound by chains and facing the wall; they see only shadows of themselves and the shadows that are shown to them by other human beings behind them. They have been there since birth, so what they see on the wall in front of them is what they perceive as reality. However, one is finally set free from his chains and thus is able to see the real reality; he is able to see the world as it exists not as it is shown to them. He sees the shadows, then reflections, then objects themselves, then the stars and the moon, and finally sunlight, which symbolises the actual nature of things or the truth. After having set eyes on the sun, this man cannot go back to the cave, to the dark, and see the world as he used to before he started contemplating the truth.
Plato refers to untutored humans as the chained prisoners who can’t be able to turn their heads in the cave. The cave represents the world humans live in for the things they see do resemble their true forms just like the prisoners could only see the shadows cast on the wall, hear the echoes produced by the real objects behind them. They could not be able to turn their heads to see the puppeteers walking behind them and the fire that is producing the light that enables the puppeteers reflect their real objects on the wall. It is easy for the prisoners to mistake reality for the images in appearance. If an animal shadow is cast on the wall, the prisoners will talk about having seen an animal thinking they have seen the real animal.
------------------------------------------------- Compare and Contrast Erica Means February 18, 2013 Phil 201-B62 LUO Prof. Vena February 18, 2013 Phil 201-B62 LUO Prof. Vena Compare and Contrast After reading the synopsis from the Matrix, Plato’s The Republic(The Allegory of the Cave),and Descartes Meditation I,I see that there are some similarities as well as differences. I would have to say that The Matrix and Plato’s cave allegory were more similar because the people involved in both stories, they were living in a world where they were being deceived about what the truth was. In the Matrix, once Neo saw the real world and that everything he thought was real was actually an illusion, is very similar to the shadows on the walls of the cave that the prisoners were seeing in Plato’s Allegory of the cave. In both stories both characters were able to experience the fake world and reality and were given the chance to see the truth and were confused. However, the prisoner in Plato’s story after gaining this new knowledge let others in bondage know of his new found knowledge but felt that the first truth was easier to except.
In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave”, one of the famous story portraits his idea, was written 2,000 years ago. Surprisingly the philosophy is still applicable in 22nd century. As such, we could elaborate the philosophy from the allegory about the way of thinking and learning. In the allegory, a group of prisoners in a cave were chained and unable to move. Behind the prisoners there is a fire and the shadows were cast on the wall, which are the only thing the prisoners could see.
Plato's Divided Line Theory explains how the reality of tangible things aren't themselves but the idea of them. Since the idea is intangible it can not change, although it may be different than you currently perceive it as, and contains the basis of all traits that would be an imitation of its true form. The allegory of the cave illustrates this concept for a better understanding. At first all the man sees are shadows which I imagine to be an understanding of an idea that we presume because it is all we have ever known. Once he is released he first sees the puppets, then real objects at night, and finally their true form in the daylight.
The prisoners represent ignorant, less educated people who have not yet opened their minds to the philosophical truth – the intelligible realm. They believe that the shadows they see projected onto the wall are the real objects because they have just blindly accepted what they see
In other words, what would happen if people accepted philosophy and become enlightened by it? In the beginning of the Allegory of the Cave Plato represents man’s condition as being “chained in a cave,” with only a fire behind him. He sees the world by watching the shadows on the wall. He sits in darkness with the false light of the fire and does not realize that this way of life is wrong. It merely is his life — he knows no other.
Shadows take a major role in the allegory of the cave. The shadows are appearances of other objects mistakenly thought to be real by the prisoners. Seeing as these shadows are the shadowing of the real objects itself in which the actual object is a more perfect form of the shadow of the object, the real object must be somewhere else that is not visible to the prisoner’s sight, this correlates to the world of the forms. The prisoners have no idea that these appearances are shadows and only shadows of the object and not the actual object itself, this is due to the fact that the prisoners have been brought up there throughout their whole life. The puppet master who is projecting all the objects onto the wall is trying to prevent the prisoners from seeing anything more than what they want them to see, e.g.
We see that ideas are eternal and perfect, even though the physical world crumbles. The "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the basic tenets that all we perceive are imperfect "reflections" of the ultimate Forms, which subsequently represent truth and reality. In his story, Plato establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. When summarizing the "Allegory of the Cave" it's important to remember the two elements to the story; the fictional metaphor of the prisoners, and the philosophical tenets in which said story is supposed to represent, thus presenting us with the allegory itself.