Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Meaning and Interpretation
Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Meaning and Interpretation
Of all the beliefs, the most important and difficult to prove are the matters we cannot see but just feel and perceive. Plato's allegory of the cave is a illustration of truth, which is left out in the war of reasoning.
Plato was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who left his mark in history. His classical philosophies on human nature reveal the basic truth as well as the flaws in the psychological evolution of mankind. Plato's allegory of the cave is a hypothetical scenario depicted by an enlightening conversation between Socrates and Plato's brother, Glaucon. The conversation basically deals with the ignorance of humanity trapped within the precincts of conventional ethics. As indicated by the term Homo sapiens, they refer to the not-so sapient humans, but to the more civilized and cultivated form of animals. For spiritual evolution, an in-depth understanding of mother nature and the truth behind the things which cannot be seen, is also very important.
Description of the Cave
While describing the story, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave inhabited by people. These men are prisoners, and their hands and legs are shackled by chains(which symbolizes ignorance and little knowledge of the real world) . Moreover, the movement of their face is also restricted, so that they can see nothing but the wall in front of them(so that they only know single type of knowledge). This restricted movement limits their visibility to the wall, thus restricting the scope of any encounter beyond it. There is an enormous fire on the ground, and between the wall and the fire is a walkway meant for objects to pass. The shadows of these objects fall directly on the wall providing the sole view for the prisoners. Hence, the only way for the prisoners to get acquainted with their surroundings is to translate the shadows and consider them to be a part of the real world. They start naming each and every object, and amongst
Of all the beliefs, the most important and difficult to prove are the matters we cannot see but just feel and perceive. Plato's allegory of the cave is a illustration of truth, which is left out in the war of reasoning.
Plato was a Greek philosopher and mathematician who left his mark in history. His classical philosophies on human nature reveal the basic truth as well as the flaws in the psychological evolution of mankind. Plato's allegory of the cave is a hypothetical scenario depicted by an enlightening conversation between Socrates and Plato's brother, Glaucon. The conversation basically deals with the ignorance of humanity trapped within the precincts of conventional ethics. As indicated by the term Homo sapiens, they refer to the not-so sapient humans, but to the more civilized and cultivated form of animals. For spiritual evolution, an in-depth understanding of mother nature and the truth behind the things which cannot be seen, is also very important.
Description of the Cave
While describing the story, Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine a cave inhabited by people. These men are prisoners, and their hands and legs are shackled by chains(which symbolizes ignorance and little knowledge of the real world) . Moreover, the movement of their face is also restricted, so that they can see nothing but the wall in front of them(so that they only know single type of knowledge). This restricted movement limits their visibility to the wall, thus restricting the scope of any encounter beyond it. There is an enormous fire on the ground, and between the wall and the fire is a walkway meant for objects to pass. The shadows of these objects fall directly on the wall providing the sole view for the prisoners. Hence, the only way for the prisoners to get acquainted with their surroundings is to translate the shadows and consider them to be a part of the real world. They start naming each and every object, and amongst