Explain Plato's Analogy of the Cave (25) The analogy of the cave represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. He sums up his views in an image of ignorant humanity, trapped in the depths and not even aware of its own limited perspective. The analogy begins with a group of people who have lived in a deep cave since birth, never seeing the light of day. These people are bound so that they cannot look anywhere else but straight ahead and unable to look at the other prisoners. Behind them is a fire, and behind the fire is a partial wall.
The initial problem the prisoners experience is their belief in the actuality of these shadows as objects in and of themselves. They believe the things they see on the wall are real, as they are, leading one to reference the prisoners games. The identification and games of prediction are rooted in a misguided foundation. The prisoners, think they are naming objects and predicting the order in which they appear, but Socrates points out the fact that their reality is limited to the shadows, they know nothing of the real cause of the
Explain Plato's Analogy of the Cave Plato was a dualist, he believed there are two worlds, the world of the Forms and the world of Appearances. 'The Analogy of the Cave' portrays humans stuck in a 'world of appearances'. It depicts a cave in which there are prisoners who have been chained up since birth so they can only see in front of them. The prisoners have their back to a curtain, behind the curtain there is a road and further behind that and higher up in the cave is a fire. People walk alond the road carrying various objects such as models of animals on poles.
Thinking that they were facing the possibility of a dream and not reality, they believed that they were unconsciously living manipulated by deception. Socrates, in the “Allegory of the Cave”, is not any different from Descartes and Neo who felt attached to a mastermind that computed or manipulated what it wanted them to do and see. Socrates describes these beings attached to the walls of a cave having their legs and necks fettered from childhood unable to move their heads, but only seeing what they were set or allowed to see, shadows cast on the wall from the figures passing in front of the light behind and above them (Socrates, The
`Plato’s teaching about reality in his analogy of the cave Plato was a philosopher who lived in Ancient Greece. Known by some as the Father of Philosophy, Plato put forward his analogy of the cave, in order to explain his views about the realm of the Forms. Also the analogy of the cave was made to tell and inform people about philosophy. The cave is about men who are prisoners in a cave and their hands and legs are in chains also their face is restricted which does not give them the chance to see. The only thing they can see is the wall in front of them.
Maybe so, because of soma, where society has been enslaved into falsified happiness. The government did whatever they wanted to the society similar to the control in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” contrasting the way people perceived and believed in what is reality. The ideas in Brave New World and “Allegory of the Cave” clearly depict how the people are entrapped in falsified realities in which they perceive a happiness in which they would not be satisfied with, if they had the freedom of knowledge and choice. There is no real idea, oblivious of what reality is. In the allegory the humans are restraint simply by chains and it leads to the overall ignorance and falsified satisfaction.
“The Cathedral” and “The Allegory of the Cave” are two short stories that resemble each other in the need to break free from negative illusions. In the “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato describes a man named Socrates who describes an illusion. This illusion included prisoners in a cave who have been chained by their arms and legs. These prisoners are bound to the floor and unable to turn their heads to see what goes on behind them. The prisoners are only able to see what the puppeteers are casting on the wall, which they perceive as reality.
Plato’s text explains the progress of mankind becoming educated, from total darkness, and Malcolm X also explains how he himself was imprisoned; and used that time to become educated. I have read two very interesting texts about freedom, resistance, and oppression. “Learning to Read” by Malcolm X and “the Allegory of the Cave” by Plato, both have a person trying to learn what is outside their prison cell or cave. As explained in the passage “Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads.
Plato uses various metaphors such as the chains to represent the senses which keep humans from exploring and gaining higher knowledge. The puppeteers who represent those who know and use their knowledge to control the rest. The shadows which stands for what people believe they are seeing which relates back to the matrix, which their whole world is make believe , but there are those who challenge the system and become aware of what is really going on. The sun represents the fully enlightened stage, completely out of the cave which obviously stands for the ignorance most people hold. The fire is the hard reality which is hard to look at but once a person sees that the shadows on the wall are not what they seem to be the fire becomes the only way to enlightenment.
The Allegory of the Cave is a dialogue between teacher, Socrates, and pupil ‘Glaucon.’ In it, the teacher attempts to guide the student through an extended metaphor of “education and ignorance as a picture of the condition of our nature” (500). Plato likens members of society to unknowing prisoners in a cave who can only perceive shadows of unseen objects. These shadows are cast by a fire that burns behind the prisoners and reflects images on the walls in front of the prisoners. Once a prisoner is guided out of the cave and sees the world in its true, harsh, light, the prisoner is able to understand that what they see in the cave is a fallacy. Upon return to the cave, the ‘enlightened’ prisoner cannot relate to life in the cave.