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How Did Plato Contribute To The Allegory Of The Cave

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How Did Plato Contribute To The Allegory Of The Cave
Philosophical thinker, Plato, believed in human nature and that one had to be able to understand human nature in order to live life to the best of one’s ability. Plato believed in metaphysics- principles that are real- and epistemology- the study of theories of knowledge that justify beliefs from opinions. Furthermore, Plato believed in using literary devices to explain his views, which lead to one of his most famous thoughts, the allegory of the cave- in which Plato tells Socrates’s story of prisoners in a cave to express his view that all people may be trapped in that cave because of lack of knowledge, and too much reliance on common sense. Plato’s, the divided line, helped to show the metaphysical and epistemological beliefs of Plato. …show more content…
Plato also believed that people needed to understand general types which he referred to as concepts, that got expressed in general statements. Furthermore, Plato placed mathematical objects closer to the level of reality, instead of material objects because they were concepts that did not change. Mathematical concepts are considered eternal, they do not change. There is no way to banish how to do math problems. Along with Plato’s beliefs about mathematical concepts, he also believed in the Theory of Forms. Plato believed that Forms had the highest reality because they were required to be understood and they were in the world of Being, not Becoming. Also, Forms have intelligible structure, which shows that no matter how many different types of one thing there may be, there is an essential structure of each object. Lastly, Plato believed in reasoning and innate ideas. Reasoning helped to come across truth, and was the type of knowledge that could be learned through an extensive study of mathematics. Innate ideas are thoughts that are not learned, Plato believed that people could be born with thoughts and beliefs, but they needed time to figure out those

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