Plato Cave

In the Allegory of the Cave by Plato, there was a group of prisoners who lived in a cave since they were born. These people could not see anything besides straight ahead from where they were. Behind these prisoners there was a fire and puppets in which they told stories. The prisoners were able to see the shadows caused by the fire and puppets, because that was the only thing they saw they believed that the shadows were the most real things in this world. The shadows told stories about people, trees, men etc. which made the prisoner believe that shadows themselves were the real people, tree, men and etc. Plato uses this to demonstrates imagination itself. One of the prisoners was freed and was forced to look at what was behind them; the fire and puppets causing the shadows. The prisoner was confused and realized what was behind them. He came to realize that there were more real things out there than the shadows themselves. Plato here is demonstrating the stage of belief. Soon after the freed prisoner is taken outside the cave into the real
Plato shows his epistemology through the cave which was with the stages to find knowledge. The stages show the process of the intellect where you are reasoning and working to understand. This was when they were in the cave and saw nothing but shadows which was the first stage of imagination. The second stage was when the freed prisoner saw how the shadows were being formed which was the stage of belief. Then we go into the third stage, which was when the prisoner sees the real world and takes in the real objects, which is the stage of ideas and thoughts. In other words, this stage can be the senses, which the body understands by seeing, touching, smelling, hearing, and tasting. Lastly the freed prisoner starts grasping everything and understands which is the stage of understanding. Plato shows how one must go through these stages to seek