Preview

Truth In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
500 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Truth In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is Plato talking to Socrates and Glaucon about the idea of human being. Plato, being a philosopher, wondered about a lot of things. He, of course, had meant to put meanings behind the dialogues that he writes down, Allegory of the Cave being one. The central idea of it is that he believes humans are creatures that only wander around in places that they know, and whenever they leave the cave, they see a whole new world. Throughout the entire text, he develops the idea with lots of analogies and hidden meanings. In the beginning of the text, he writes that human beings lives in an underground cave with only one opening where just outside of them is a fire that lights everything around them. Some of the humans are …show more content…
Whenever someone sees it, they they will feel sharp pains in their eyes and the glare will blind them but that is only temporarily. It signifies that they saw the “more real existence”, not the false one in the cave(49). Humans are trapped in their own reality, and it is not always true. Since it is their comfort zone, it has to be a sort of illusion so that they do not have to deal with the harshness of the truth; they cannot handle it. The truth can be blinding sometimes. The truth is not what they want to see.
When they stare into the light longer, reality will become truer. When something is looked at for a long time, it will become clearer. The light will conceive to be in reality clearer”(49). They will see that the things he is being shown is false or not entirely true. When they sees the true reality, they have the upper hand. Humans are creatures that are capable of great things. They will look up into the sky and use them to their advantage. They will see others and help them so it is also their gain. When humans have dug their heels into the ground and refuse to move, they cannot do the great things they are meant to.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave talks a lot about human beings and how they are generally fixed in a cave they’ve been in their entire life and some are chained to a wall. His core idea is about how humans are just barely trapped in the cave that they have lived in since

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Now consider that one of the prisoners got free and slowly made their way up and out of the cave. At first they would be blind by the bring light of the sun outside the cave and they would be disoriented and in pain. But slowly over time they would begin to see that the reality of a tree isn't the shadow that they had seen on the cave wall but the thing that cats the shadow. Eventually they would be able to look up and see even the sun.…

    • 630 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The quote is a description of what will happen if prisoners who were chained up to the wall. They could only see the shadows that were on the wall from a fire blazing behind them; inside of a cave where it is dark, the only light is a fire. If the prisoners were released from the wall and cave the visuals of the outside world will be difficult to view. The writer wants to know if they will see better at night better than the sun at day? I believe the prisoners would see better at night since there eyes are more adapted to the dark than the…

    • 1391 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In The Republic, the Philosopher King becomes compelled to tell his citizens medicinal lies. When the citizens do not understand something, like medicinal things, the philosopher king becomes able to tell them almost anything and they will believe everything he says, and exalt him. He is compelled to do this to ease their minds, since they would not understand anyway, he figures it is just easier to not tell them. The Philosopher King also seems to understand more than what the citizens understand. But it isn’t his nature that sets him apart from citizens like him, it is his wisdom, virtue, and knowledge that lifts him higher than everyone else, and allows his to “understand” things that the regular citizens would not. This suits him because he is so wise, he understands why the citizens do not understand what he understands, or knows.…

    • 264 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Plato's Allegory of the Cave there were multiple beliefs brought upon by the prisoners of this cave. The prisoners of the cave are supposed to parallel everyday people in the sense of how reality is perceived. The prisoners of the cave believed and only knew that reality of the shadows and developed their own belief structure and way of processing that information. Plato connected that to everyday people due to the fact that although we strongly believe the reality we have made for ourselves, there can be more that we have never been exposed to. For example, when one of the prisoners were unchained and brought out of the cave into the world, he was overwhelmed and wanted to tell the other prisoners. Due to the fact that other prisoners could…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Book Vii of the Republic

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages

    One day a prisoner escapes. He looks towards the cave’s entrance. Fantasized by the sun’s light, he realizes that the objects he sees in the light are the real versions of the shadows he saw on the walls of the cave.…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Allegory of the Cave” (Plato) is a metaphor that shows how we believe reality. What it is showing is that the things we perceive are imperfect reflections of forms that only represent reality. In the Allegory, Plato uses a cave where prisoners are chained down and forced to look at the wall. Plato shows that the prisoners do not actually know what reality is. The readers understand that the puppeteers behind the prisoners are using objects to create shadows to real things and people, but the prisoners are unable to turn their heads, so they don’t know anything…

    • 1830 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Michael Ramsey’s video depicting Plato’s Allegory of the Cave men are held captive in a cave since childhood. The only reality they knew was demonstrated before them as the shadows of civilians as they passed by them. All seemed normal in their world until one of the prisoners was set free and taken out of the cave. Once his eyes became adjusted, he was able to accept the new reality portrayed all around him. I had a similar experience when I transitioned from high school to college. In high school my reality was based on the security, structure, and guidance provided by exterior influences, college has helped me to change my perception of reality.…

    • 865 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, a dialogue between two men, Socrates and Glaucon, reveals that our senses are not completely reliable. Socrates tells the story of a prisoner who has been chained for his whole life, able to see only shadows cast on a wall. The prisoner believed that the shadows were reality, but when he is released and dragged out of the cave, he finds a more important, more authentic reality. Socrates arrives to the conclusion that our senses are limited, just like the prisoner’s were, and that in order to come closer to the truth, we need to enter the world of intellect.…

    • 975 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    My cave is defined as the foundation of my character, which is shaped by every moral…

    • 1633 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Allegory of the Cave is a dialog between Socrates and Gloucon in The Republic written by Plato. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Socrates depicts a long, dark cave with a small opening that allows a small amount of light to enter. Inside the cave there group of prisoners, who have been in the cave for their entire lives. The prisoners legs and necks are chained to the cave floor so they are unable to move and can only look forward at the cave wall. At the back of the cave there is a fire that they are never able to view. In between the prisoners and the fire there is a low wall with a path behind it, along which people carry pictures, puppets, and statues. These pictures, puppets and statues are all the prisoners are able to see, and the echoes of the puppeteers when they speak are all they are able to hear. Although the prisoners are chained they are still content because all they have ever known are the shadows. None of them have ever seen anything beyond the cave and have no desire to do so. However one prisoner wakes up to find that he is no longer chained to the floor, and is able to leave the cave. Once the prisoner is outside he realizes that the shadows are not real. The prisoner then decides to return to the cave, to free the other prisoners, however reentering the cave would make his eyes have to…

    • 1287 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Lastly, Plato’s Allegory of The Cave had ensured through the centuries because it can still relate to today’s ignorant society. For example, the government will give the people little information yet they take it as the truth. As if the government could never lie to its people, but Plato could not disagree more.…

    • 664 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Odysseus

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages

    'The things we cant 'see' are often more frightening then things we can see, because our own imaginations come into play'…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Allegory of the Cave

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Allegory of the Cave is a metaphor that can be seen to describe many aspects and situations in life that one had no control or choice over. The reason Plato uses many metaphors in his allegory is to think or ‘philosophize’ about the world around us because in fact our understanding of the world is very limited. This is due to the fact that we live in a world of shadows and not reality to whom very little is actually known about by everyone. The metaphors are seen to actually represent a society with all its people, truths, hidden meanings, problems, solutions etc… The meanings transferred in the allegory of the cave apply to philosophy because it shows the philosophers position in society. It gives the philosopher the opportunity to philosophize/think about what exists/reality and what does not exist in our surrounding environment. To society, the allegory of the cave contemplates many issues related to man in his society. Such issues include human’s ability to be ignorant or knowledgeable, free or imprisoned, stubborn, lazy, active, etc… by choosing either to or not to search for answers to many of the issues that arise continuously. Moreover, The Allegory of the Cave is about ignorance and learning because the men in the cave are ignorant or unaware of the outside world that exists except for the shadows that they saw passing by on the walls. The man who is freed engages in the process of learning from the moment he is released from the cave and is forced to adapt to the new conditions and situations that now surround him. In addition, the chains are used to symbolize the limited amount of information that a person has about reality. For whatever reason, this limited amount of information can be considered to be a type of ignorance. Last but not least, as humans in this world, many of us are really ignorant…

    • 424 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Divided Line

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The other group of people in the visible world is the believers. They are blind followers. They believe what they are told without questioning it or giving what they are told a second thought. These people are like the hysteric mob they follow the ideas of others. But unlike the appearance followers the believers can distinguish between the illusion and the real thing. The believers could tell you that the rock itself is real and the picture of the rock is an illusion. They know that the rock itself contains more reality. And the believers…

    • 648 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The journey that “prisoners” of that cave take is in the ultimate goal to attain knowledge of the abstract world. By doing so, the few who left this place establish themselves above the slaves that are still living within the depths of the cave(521, a). The interesting part of this allegory is that it shows that this cave has an entrance and hence shows the possibility there is a light out of the tunnel and be able to reach the enlightened state. Plato clearly explains the difference between the people that are left behind the cave and those who ventured out on their journey to discover the universal truth: “…the author of light and itself in the intelligible world being the authentic source of truth and reason” (517, c). All of this is especially relevant in Plato’s thinking. He specifies in his Republic only a few will manage the reach the status of Philosopher-King and hence grasp the universal truth. It is up for the Guardian class to accomplish such a task through hardships and tough education throughout their lives to prepare them for this difficult task. It also justifies his vision that not all men are born with equal status and therefore the Noble lie. With this allegory, he is able to show the Noble Lie idea and firmly affirms that not all men can become “gold” and that only a few will manage to endure the hardships of the light and become the philosopher-king. One who chooses such a path hence refuses to live his life in ignorance and by doing so, forgets the past: “Would he not find his eyes so dazzled by the glare as to be incapable of making out so much as one of the objects that are now called true” (516, a) It is the existentialist value that men have responsible for their own self community and in…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays