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.
In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, the scenario begins by describing a cave inhabited by three prisoners who have been chained and held immobile since childhood; not only are their limbs held in place, but their heads are also fixed, which compels them to gaze at a wall in front of them. Behind the prisoners is an enormous fire and between the fire and prisoners is a walkway, along which people walk carrying things on their heads including figurines of men and animals. The chained up prisoners interpret the shadows cast on the cave wall to be as real. Eventually a prisoner is released from the cave and permitted to be let out to see the outside world such as a river, the sun, the stars and begins to discover the ultimate truth. When the ‘enlightened’ prisoner returns to the cave and voices to the other prisoners how the shadows are not the reality they seem; he is brutally kicked to death by his fellow prisoners.
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. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.”(1112). These prisoners have been chained since childhood, and are being asked by their teacher or person who is controlling the puppets to look towards the light. A puppet is a small figure of
The analogy starts by imagining a group of prisoners that are chained in such a way that they can only see the cave wall in front of them. They have been this way since birth so they would assume that the cave wall is the material world. Behind them is a walkway with a low wall in front of it in which travellers carrying artefacts or statues would travel across. Behind these people is a fire which casts shadows of the artefacts against the cave wall. Naturally, when the people walked across with their various artefacts the prisoners would only see their shadows and if a traveller was to talk, they would logically assume that the sound or voice had come from the shadow.
However, both works have some significant similarities in theme. In “The Allegory of the Cave", Plato describes a metaphor that compares the way we perceive and what truely is reality. The main idea behind this allegory is that everything we perceive are imperfect reflections of the true forms. In this story, Plato describes a cave in where prisoners are tied up and forced to look at a wall. The various meanings in the allegory can be seen in the beginning with the prisoners whom are confined within the darkness of the cave.
“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.
Religion versus the Truth In Plato’s book The Republic, he explains an allegory. He names it the “Allegory of the cave”. Inside of this cave he talks about, are prisoners. The prisoners represent people who have never stepped out of their comfort zone and gained knowledge of new things. For all of the prisoner’s lives they have known of a wall and a small fire.
We know what beauty and justice is without having experienced it in perfect Form so to Plato knowledge was a recollection of what our souls already knew while in the perfect external realm In the allegory of the cave is this. In the cave there a humans who have been chained at the head and the legs so as to only see the wall in which they are placed. The fire behind these figures creates shadows or illusions which the prisoners see as their reality. The objects cast on the wall are projected by people walking past with certain objects such as puppets. They have been in this state since they were born so they have grown into their ignorance.
This philosophy contradicts with that of other philosophers, whose beliefs rest on the pursuit and building of knowledge. It can be concluded that other philosophers aspire to obtain as much knowledge as possible, while Socrates is in search of only the underlying truth. Knowledge is the common idea of The Apology and The Allegory of the Cave. The Allegory serves as a metaphor that illustrates the effects of knowledge on the human spirit. It begins with a group of people, trapped in a dark cave since birth.
Finding such amazing descriptive pictures of animals, 60 percent of these animals painted on these walls were never, or rarely, hunted. These such, animals consisted of lions, rhinos, bears, panthers, and woolly mammoths. These animals rarely got hunted because they were almost considered sacred to these people. This was discovered by the use of color of these paintings made them very symbolic. Each color was symbolic be the location of were each painting was in the cave.