A second criticism of his theory is that the forms could just be ideas in people’s minds. It could be argued that ideas such as justice cannot be portrayed in a physical form in a different reality, instead only existing in someone’s head. How can an idea, like beauty or justice, be portrayed in a solid form? Beauty and justice are both perceptive - something that is beautiful may not be considered as ‘true’ beauty by different people. Can a concept that varies between billions of people really exist in an external reality as in the World of the Forms?
Plato uses the description of “Darkness” to possibly imply there are false realities that we each have and uses “sunlight” to stand for being enlightened by the “new world”, which is what the released prisoner was to experience. The “cave” is referred to as the “little world” that they are living in. I feel as if it is just a small part of the world that they know V/S the Larger world they should explore They are not free because they don’t know what experiences is outside the cave. They have been sheltered and not allowed to see for themselves what life can really be. The “shackles” are like a symbol of how they all have this same way of living and thinking.
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.
Plato however sees that living in ignorance is living away from the truth and being a philosopher, argues that we should always question the world we live in. An example of this would be in Plato’s analogy of the cave because the prisoners were happy in their un-real world and playing their games but even though they were extremely ignorant to reality, they were very happy and content with their lives. Plato believes that this is wrong and that only philosophers are brave enough to become enlightened and see the world for what it is. Socrates also agrees with Plato on this and a quote to prove this would be that “a philosopher does not indulge in any pleasures of the body, he cannot gain wisdom through hearing or seeing they being finite” which applies to wise philosophers and not ignorant men. Contentment should be out of fullness and not laziness.
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
Basil is like these men also because he feeds images to his son while he thinks he is living the truth, when these men are just as ignorant of the world that lies outside the cave they live in as the men that have been shackled since birth. Segismund’s first moment of freedom is just like when the man is first unshackled and led up to the world outside the cave. He does not really perceive what he is seeing, but merely shields his eyes from the world – in Segismund’s case, by acting savagely. He gets used to it, however, and in the end, only Segismund finally realises the truth as the truth. I feel that Calderon’s “Life Is a Dream” can
Now there rise a problematic of the simile of the cave for its gaining knowledge which is the start of Plato’s direct argument that philosophers should only rule. This analogy argues that for society to be just, only rulers must be educated as philosophers that obtain knowledge of the Good yet they must be forced back into the cave to rule. Plato highlights when moving from being a prisoner to finally be able to gaze straight at the sun will be a hard and uncomfortable routine. Basically, this enlightens why philosophers achieving knowledge of the Forms do not
Misconceptions of philosophy Philosophy, an area of study once popularized by people like Aristotle and Socrates, is now an afterthought for many of us, and the reason for that could be all the common misconceptions we held against philosophy. Many of us might think that studying and learning philosophy is impractical, too abstract, waste of time, or even irrelevant to our every day lives, however going through each one these misconceptions, we will realize the importance of studying philosophy for each individual. One widely held misconception about philosophy is that it has no practical values. One might consider studying philosophy impractical because this field will not provide a strong financial safety for one's future. Even though we might not make much money by studying philosophy, having philosophical point of view will have many useful benefits in our lives.
Plato’s allegory is identified as a great philosophical writing that is so symbolic. The allegory explains that we may not be able to know the truth about existence if we rely majorly on our own perceptions. Human senses and perceptions are unreliable and imperfect because they make individuals look at things in their own view and not as they truly are. (“Cohen” 2006) According to the Plato’s allegory, humans think and speak without acknowledging and being aware of the realities but their perception and opinion. Plato refers to untutored humans as the chained prisoners who can’t be able to turn their heads in the cave.
The prisoner returns to the cave to share with the other prisoners what he has learned. Plato calls this journey “the turning around of the soul”. The journey that the prisoner took was one of education because the prisoner learned that there was more than just what he could see in the cave. In the movie Dear Frankie, Frankie is the prisoner in the cave and his mother is the one who is showing him the images, although she is only doing so to protect Frankie from the truth that is father abused him. I think that Frankie’s mother should have told him the truth about his father or protected him a different way, instead of lying that his father was writing him.