world: an eternal world of ideas. It is made up out of eternal unchanging forms of things. This world can be known through reason alone. The material world (world of things) is a manifestation of this eternal world of ideas. Using the allegory‚ Plato pictures the everyday situation of man. He can speak‚ hear‚ and encounter the world without actually being aware of the world of Ideas. True knowledge can only be gained from the world of ideas. The world of things merely generates opinions or
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In his well-known “Allegory of the Cave”‚ the Greek philosopher Plato used the analogy of people lost in a cave to explain his belief that only enlightened philosophers should rule‚ since only they could truly understand the world. When I compared Plato’s ideal government to the workings of a modern democracy‚ I realized how different these two are. The U.S. government relies on the rule of the people‚ and does not limit voting rights or the pursuit of public office to any particular class. If Plato’s
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The Allegory of the Cave by Plato In the Allegory of the Cave‚ we learn from Plato’s story that the cave dwellers view of life is limited to what they can actually see. Their reality is what they can visualize from their limited environment. When one of them escapes he finds out that what they thought the world was like was not real. After discovering a new reality‚ he returns to the cave and tries to tell the others that they are confused about what the world is really like. The others are fearful
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A look into Plato and his understanding of the philosophical ways of life; in this paper we will do just that. There are many aspects of Plato’s understandings of philosophy and its relationships within a society and we will dig into a handful of them. Those few being Plato’s understanding of philosophy and its relationship with politics; The Allegory of the Cave and how it shines light on Plato’s concept of education. The next being the characteristics and abilities of a philosopher making them
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The Allegory of the Cave" by Plato represents a metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. What is reality exactly? What may we see that others may not? These questions can be simply answered with one word: ignorance. Ignorance is what may hold us back from seeing the big picture. In his story‚ Plato establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. Behind the prisoners‚ lies a bridge‚ a fire and
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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
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Photographs furnish evidence. Something we hear about‚ but doubt‚ seems proven when we’re shown a photograph of it. In one version of its utility‚ the camera record incriminates. Starting with their use by the Paris police in the murderous roundup of Communards in June 1871‚ photographs became a useful tool of modern states in the surveillance and control of their increasingly mobile populations. In an other version of its utility‚ the camera record jus tifies. A photograph passes for incontrovertible
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“The Allegory of the Cave” Excerpt from Plato‚ The Republic‚ Book VII‚ 514A1-518D8‚ Socrates and Glaucon are conversing: SOCRATES: “Next‚” said I “compare our nature in respect of education and its lack to such an experience as this. Picture men dwelling in a sort of subterranean cavern with a long entrance open to the light on its entire width. Conceive them as having their legs and necks fettered from childhood‚ so that they remain in the same spot‚ able to look forward only‚ and prevented by
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In the allegory of the cave‚ Plato describes several men who have been chained all their lives with only a wall in front of them in which shadows are displayed and only echoes are heard. These men believe these shadows and echoes to be the totality of real things in the world without any inclination to question the veracity of their perception. Once one of them is released from the chains and comes out of the cave‚ he is welcomed into a new reality‚ one that supersedes the misapprehension of the
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Tearra Daniel Philosophy 1030 Plato 2/20/2013 Plato was a well-known wrestler‚ and the name by which we know him today was his ring name. Plato means broad or flat: presumably in this case the former meaning‚ referring to his shoulder. At his birth in 429 B.C. Plato was given the name Aristocles. He was born in Athens‚ or on the island of Aegina‚ which lies just twelve miles offshores from Athens in the Saronic Gulf. Plato was born into one of the great political families of Athens. His
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