Explain the Allegory of the Cave The allegory of the Cave was made by Plato when he tried to explain human ignorance and how almost all humans don’t see our true reality. It refers to the Cave as what we perceive reality to be and how we are chained to a wall to only see this perceived reality. Plato tries to make us a see a world in which the prison was to be released from his chains. Where he would feel intense pain by the light outside and dazed but the new world he begins to see, where he would also struggle to adjust at all to truth of reality and his new surroundings. After he realises that what he previously thought to be reality was in fact a lie, he tries to forget about his past life.
In this analogy the prisoners represent us; the ordinary people in the everyday world that are yet to experience the true world that is out there – the World of Forms. The chains in which the prisoners are bound by are the illusions we experience during our life span. These illusions keep us from progressing in life and making the discovery to our true reality. The shadows on the wall represent our senses in literal meaning – our innate senses cause us to accept all that
Shawn Choi AP Art History, Per. 3 Mitchell 11/20/14 The Allegory of the Cave Plato frequently employs –the language of poetry, using myths, parables, and allegories to transmit to his readers the profound truths of his idealistic philosophy which, to quote again from his Seventh Letter, “does not admit of exposition like other branches of knowledge.” The most famous and brilliant example of Plato’s use of this device is the allegory of the cave from the Republic, his description of an ideal state. Its purpose is to illustrate graphically the importance of moving away from the “shadows” of the world of appearances to the world of eternal nonmaterial realities beyond. This is the realm of the Ideas, the highest of which is the Idea of Good, here compared with the sun. Like the sun, it causes all things to exist, to be visible, and to become intelligible.
To inform others and infect others to join him is the real change. Unfortunately, rarely has the history seen somebody debunking the cruel truth to the public and not being retaliated. By trying to free those “prisoners in the cave”, a man is really risking being conflicted, putting in jail or even being sentenced to death like Copernicus’s destination of advocating his heliocentric
He saw politics in a whole new light and furthermore used his views for operating, and became determined to use them in his philosophy. The cave analogy begins with the book Plato wrote called 'The Republic'. The book was basically about how to organise and run society, which is seen through by philosophers. The analogy is a clever analogy as it uses a very sensible and realistic analogy to put across his theory. Plato cave analogy is that anyone who was not or is not a philosopher, are like prisoners in a cave 'Behold!
(A)Explain Plato’s teaching about reality in his analogy of the cave (25) Plato is one of the most famous philosophers in history as his writings influenced development in the western world. He put forward his analogy of the cave, in order to explain his views about the realm of the Forms. Plato uses the analogy to help describe his philosophical position on the main difference between the physical world and the World of Forms. He believes that his analogy could clearly explain to others why the material world was nothing but an illusion; while true reality must only be found in the eternal unchanging World of Forms. Plato’s analogy begins in a cave which is meant to represent the material or physical world.
Descartes looks at his wall and sees the illusions of the senses, pre-understanding and reason. Descartes begins to doubt and turns away from the ignorance that is being shown to him. Descartes doubt starts him on his journey to find his form of the good (the true). Descartes believes that it is important to study the self so he bypasses the teachers that are presenting his illusions as the truth and as reality and exits the cave into the intelligible world. Descartes is in the thinking (reflections) stage and begins to look within.
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.
Explain the analogy of the cave in Plato’s Republic The analogy of the cave is an idea put forward by Plato to represent the human condition. It is meant to represent how we perceive what is reality and what is not. The main point is that everything we see is merely a “shadow” of its ultimate form and that reality only exists in the world of forms. He represents this by showing a prisoners ascent into the real world. 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.
The real world is extremely a dystopia, and the people that live in the Matrix are entirely cut off from this reality. Ironically, the real world in the Matrix is a parallel to the world inside the cave. In the matrix, people are only able to see what the machines process, making it difficult for them to break free from the fantasy world. However, as Plato`s story progresses one of the prisoners is set free, but only to live a life of confusion and fear. In the matrix, most die trying to escape from it, and once free, they are just as scared as Plato`s prisoner.