The Allegory of the Cave by Plato is an essay that is both symbolic and meaningful. Plato presents people as prisoners in cave. While Cogito ergo sum by Descartes is about the thinking concepts. Both philosophers argues that there is a higher reality in which mankind did not reach yet. However it is reachable by passing through different limitations His Both Plato and Descartes argue that humans are trapped by wrong assumptions and beliefs.
In this case, Socrates is talking about the reincarnation of the soul in new bodies. He states that since everything comes from it's opposite and life comes from death, the soul must reside somewhere until it is cast out into a new body. He believes this place is Hades. There are also some flaws in this logic. If everything has an opposite then what is the opposite of a soul?
The “shackles” are like a symbol of how they all have this same way of living and thinking. Each of them have been tied together in this world of not knowing the life outside of the “cave”. The thought often scares those without the ability to understand that reality is what one may make of it when embracing the situations you may encounter daily. (The Republic) Yes, I do believe it is important for people to escape “the Cave”. According Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" The chained man was suddenly released from his bondage and let out into the world.
Plato’s theory of Forms leads to obtaining knowledge comprises turning away from the world which can only yield opinion, concerning Forms and the intellect world which he practice metaphors and analogies to theory of Forms. That said, one aspect of the argument made by Plato is the Allegory of the Cave and the Divided Line. “The Divided Line expresses Plato’s hierarchical view of reality and wisdom. The Simile of the Sun characterizes the act of apprehending highest truth in the form of the Good (Soccio 2013).” In the Cave, the Divided Line enlightens of the similar types of epistemic state which it relates to; the Simile of the cave provides story around transforming up the line from the aspects of illusion to intelligence which are consequences for doing so. When looking at the chained Prisoners in the Cave face to a wall, people are moving objects around the prisoners along the road.
It merely is his life — he knows no other. Plato next envisions what would happen if the chained man were released and let out into the world. Plato describes how some people would immediately be frightened and want to return to the cave and their familiar existence, whereas others would look at the sun and finally know reality. In the Cave, I feel the common prisoner best represents me. These prisoners are a symbol of life before we are fully "educated" according to Plato's ideal.
Plato articulated the paradigm for a rationalist understanding of human nature. He assumed a dichotomy between body and soul. The soul is the site of reason, and as such it is understood as eternal and (partly and potentially) independent of the body. The body, on the other hand, is mortal and will die. The central struggle in a person's life is to gain control over the physical by means of the rational.
According to Plato, the outside world represents the world of forms. The cave in Plato’s analogy symbolises the empirical world. Plato believed that the empirical world only the appearance of truth as it was constantly in a state of flux and that the empirical world has no form of its own, it is only substance. However, the forms in the world of knowledge are reflected onto this substance and the image of their truth can be recognized in this substance, based on the quality of reflection. The shadows on the wall of the cave symbolise the drama and objects in the empirical world.
The Platonic ideal is that beauty has an unchanging “perfect form” in the “Realm of Being”. A common question asked of Plato’s theory is “if our souls come from this other realm of Forms, and know it to exist, then why doesn’t all of humanity recognise Platonic belief as the absolute truth?” Plato’s answer to this was that upon descending from the “Realm of Being” there was confusion and the souls forgot the other realm, he said that ascension to the realm can only be
THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE The following is an excerpt from Plato’s dialogue called “The Republic.” In this section of the dialogue called the “Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates creates an allegory to help illustrate his theory of knowledge. “Now then,” Socrates said, “let me tell you a story about ignorance and education which will explain the condition of man’s nature. Imagine that there is an underground cave with a long entrance open to the light. In this cave men have been chained from birth, fettered by the neck and legs so they cannot move. They cannot turn their heads around; they can only look forward at the wall of the cave.
Unit 2 Plato’s “Allegory” Assignment Kaplan University HU250 – 0827-1107-38XOBL Plato’s “Allegory” and Life The Myth of the Cave from Plato’s Republic is basically a conversation Plato is describing between Socrates and his brother Glaucon. It deals with the ignorance of human kind. Society forms certain ethical norms that that we find ourselves living by. This piece discusses both the enlightened and unenlightened mankind. To break this out the cave is the stereotypes of the world.