Comparing Plato's Allegory Of The Cave And The Truman Show

Anthony Arena Professor J. Mileo Philosophy 243 February 1, 2017 The Truman Show and Plato’s Cave Allegory Plato’s Cave Allegory is one of the most, if not the most famous allegories of all time. Despite Plato’s introduction of the Cave Allegory occurring sometime between 380 and 360 B.C., it is still analyzed by modern philosophers who attempt to narrow down and explain some of the broad statements made by Plato. In addition to this research, it has also become clear that many modern films display many of the same messages through metaphors in which someone has developed a misconception regarding reality. The Truman Show is one film, of many, which appears to have adopted a substantial amount of ideas from Plato’s Cave Allegory and adapted

This message entails people's outlook on reality and the perception that is presented to them. Overall I believe that Plato’s allegory has proved to exemplify a more effective transition from illusion to reality due to its relatability to Socrates message depicting human perception and

Plato was an Athenian philosopher, who founded the first academic institution in the western world, the academy and is well-known for paving the path for philosophy in western traditions. He was a student of Socrates’ and often used Socrates in the discussions of his dialogues, the myth of the cave being one of them. Plato was a believer of idealism. He believed that immaterial qualities are more real than empirical objects, which we can feel, see, and touch. In the myth of the cave, Plato paints us a picture of how we can be easily fooled by our senses, and of our original perceptions of the world.

James De Mille’s A Strange Manuscript Found in a Copper Cylinder is a tale of two complex interplaying narratives that De Mille uses to portray the critical shortcomings of several of the readers. Fundamental to De Mille’s critique is the use of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, wherein Plato alludes to three individuals chained inside a dark cavern deeming the shadows of passing objects as real, until one of them is released and realizes the outside world as real, albeit the remaining prisoners are hostile to this change in philosophy (Plato 317-20). Plato uses this image as an allegory to members of society being too comfortable in their ignorance and hostile towards matters that might challenge their perceptions of the world; in turn, never breaking from the figurative shackles of society (Plato 317-20). Hence, by analyzing the limitations of the readers Adam More, Lord Featherstone, Oxenden and Congreve, and Melick it will be clear that De Mille’s depicts several unskilled readers to satirize our views of the world through the use of Plato’s Allegory to the Cave in order to demonstrate what constitutes as a good reader from him.

Of all of his works, one of Plato’s most famous is The Republic, which is a lengthy book that covers outlines several different societal aspects such as, the ideal form of government, the acquisition of wisdom, and the definition of justice. These are all lofty goals as each of the aforementioned categories could be considered subjective, as each person could find a different form of government to be ideal, or have a different opinion of what justice is to them. One of the most famous chapters from The Republic is commonly known as “The Allegory of the Cave,” in which Socrate’s shows Glaucon the effects of education. Plato outlines the process of education through the tale of a group of prisoners that for the entirety of their existence have

The Truman show is a movie that’s plot is based off the republic by Plato, written in 360 B.C.E. The Truman show is about a man who’s lived his entire life in a fictional town that is actually a TV show set. He does not know that his life is a TV show but he starts to learn the truth throughout the movie. Although Peter Weir reuses the idea of a cave were stuck in and that the truth is hard to realize from Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, the transformation of the truth being much more than what we perceive and getting yourself out of your cave ultimately leads to a deeper truth that is as philosophically compelling. As Plato writes, “Human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood” meaning that literally, people are trapped in a cave. This is directly used the Truman show, as the TV show set is the cave that Truman in chained in.

The allegory of the cave first published in Platos Republic was retold in Cottingham text and discussed in Class. An allegory is a story used to reveal a hidden meaning. Plato’s hidden meaning revolves around reality, the perception of reality the perception of truth. Plato paints a picture of humans being captive in a cave, bound in a manner where that cannot move and can only see what is before them and what is before them is the cave wall.

The Allegory of The Cave In the allegory Plato is trying to tell us is that in life we think we know what reality is because of what we see, but what if that is all an illusion? We are never going to be able to see the real things if we are kept inside a box, in this case inside a cave. We got to step out of the cave, our comfort zone. And when we finally step out we will be able to see the real world, we will have a panoramic view.

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a short narrative written by Plato to convey the feelings, thoughts, and obstacles a person faces as a philosopher. The story focuses on the tale of a group of humans bound to each other in dark cave, only two lights within the cave giving them any form of light. One of the humans breaks free of his binds within the cave, and ventures into the light, at first struggling to comprehend what he sees, but grows to love the world beyond the cave. He then goes back to free the other prisoners within the cave but each one of them reject his help, either being afraid or aggressive towards the freed prisoner as they believe he is below them for his newly changed beliefs. The situation represents the internal struggle suffered by philosophers with the

The difference between reality and ones conception of reality is hard to differentiate. Not until one questions with thought, seeing all forms of the world can they truly understand. Crossing the line of the empirical world and the world of forms is hard to grasp when shadows are reality. This concept of crossing over is explored by Plato as he describes the story of “The allegory of the cave”. Born into an empirical world full of shadows from a fire and chains to hold these children in their chairs, there are no other forms than what they see.

Final Exam Plato’s cave allegory demonstrates how blinded we could be by the world around us. Plato proves to us that we are able to think and speak for ourselves even if we have no prior knowledge of a certain subject. Prisoners were enslaved in a cave while not being able to turn their heads all they could see was what was in front of them. The puppeteers would project the image of puppets which provided the enslaved with the shadow of what they thought was reality. The prisoners had a perception of what they thought was a real object but instead it was just a projection of fiction that was not real along with the echoes that were portrayed inside of the cave.

This movie wants you to think about the way you live and if it is true. You can compare The Truman Show to Plato's Allegory of the Cave in many ways. First, Truman could be compared to the escaped prisoner. The both slowly realize that their beliefs are false. The fake world, inside the dome that Truman lives in, would be the cave.

However, as the film progresses, Truman begins to realize that he is not in the real world, but in a world where he is the center of attention. In this essay, Plato’s allegory of the cave and theory of forms will be used to discern whether or not Truman

Plato, a well-known mathematician and a central figure in philosophy, laid the foundation stones of Western Philosophy (along with Socrates and Aristotle). Alfred North Whitehead once said, “the safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” Plato realises that in general, humanity can go on leading a life which is greatly understood. For example, he finds truth in his world of forms and thinks that the general populace can think, and speak, and may not even acknowledge any awareness of Plato’s world of forms. He explains his thoughts in the Allegory of The Cave which is presented as a fictional dialogue between Socrates and Plato’s brother.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Plato was a protégé of Socrates and an idealist philosopher during the classical Greek period that helped to form the base of philosophy as is known in today’s western world. He formed his own ideology called “Platonic Idealism” which is the idea that the visible world is not the most real form of reality placing the truest form of reality on unchanging, eternal and objectively existing forms. Plato often wrote allegories to express his world view and to allow his audience to realize Plato’s ideas on their own terms. Plato wrote the myth of the cave to show through metaphor and allegory how an ordinary person can gain enlightenment, become a philosopher and attempt to teach others of this knowledge.