Objective Truth In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

Throughout the last five weeks, I have read three of Plato’s dialogues: the cave allegory, Euthyphro, and the Apology. While reading them, I was able to see Plato’s view of a philosophical life. To live philosophically is to question appearances and look at an issue/object from a new perspective. In this essay, I will explain Plato’s cave allegory, Socrates’ discussion with Euthyphro, and the oracle story in the Apology.

In “The Allegory of the Cave”, the prisoner was ignorant of the true nature of their reality and was limited by their perception of the world. In Plato, Socrates illustrated an image of a prisoner chained to the cave wall their whole life, facing only a blank wall. Behind them was a fire burning that was casting a shadow. They believe this casted shadow was their only reality. However, one of the prisoners made a bold attempt to free himself and escape outside the cave.

In life, the world one lives in is always assumed to be the reality, without anyone questioning its credibility. As Iris Murdoch once said, “[People] live in a fantasy world, a world of illusion. The great task in life is to find reality. ”(Iris Murdoch Quotes). In The Allegory of the Cave by Plato, prisoners are trapped in a cave and chained so that they are to face a wall and only see the shadows of objects that pass behind them.

Kristen Jakupak Epistemology Philosophy Paper October 5, 2015 Within Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, and Descartes Meditation I, there are multiple similarities and differences in them. Reality is questionable within both of these stories. There is skepticism in them on whether they are truly living, and if it is real, or if it is controlled by something else entirely. In both stories, they also wanted to leave what they understood to be reality, to find what they thought and sensed to be the true reality.

Plato tells us that the prisoners are confused on their emergence from the cave and that the prisoners’ will be blinded once they had been freed from the cave. After a period of time they will adjust their eyesight and begin to understand the true reality that the world poses. The stubbornness to develop a different perspective is seen in much of today’s society. The allegory of the cave is an understanding of what the true world is and how many people never see it because of their views of the society they are raised in.

In its simplest form, I believe that in the “Allegory of the Cave” Plato is trying to explain the difference between perception and true knowledge. It's not only an analogy about exposing what is behind the shadows when there is light. It's also about what happens when you finally do obtain this knowledge and then try to explain it those who have not been enlightened. The cave can represent a multitude of things: religion, government, life, a fixed perspective of the world, etc. Each of these provides context that shape humans views but also creates bias from which it’s hard to escape, especially as many “truths” are passed from generation to generation or taught in school.

#2 Plato’s Allegory In Modern Day Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is about the human perspective and enlightenment. In todays society Plato’s allegory is still relevant and is deeply rooted in education. College students are a perfect analogy for the “Allegory of the Cave”. We are told from the very beginning that we need to have an education to be successful in life.

Plato uses the “Allegory of the Cave” to try to give others a clear explanation of what it is like to be a philosopher. Several men are chained up in cave so that they cannot even turn their heads away from a wall, and they have been like this since their infancy. Because of a meticulous setup with a walkway and fire, the men see shadows of sculptures that men carry through the cave. Their entire life revolves around the shadows that dance on the wall in front of them; this is all they know. Suddenly, one prisoner is forced out of the cave and into the light.

Socrates’s allegory of the cave in Plato’s Republic Book VII is an accurate depiction of how people can be blinded by what they are only allowed to see. The allegory does have relevance to our modern world. In fact, all of us as a species are still in the “cave” no matter how intelligent or enlightened we think we have become. In Plato’s Republic Book VII, Socrates depicts the scenario in a cave where there are prisoners who are fixed only being able to look at the shadows on the wall which are projections of things passing between them and the light source.

Plato “The Cave”, symbolize the world. Our world is the underground den and mentally were in a dark cave. There are humans trapped as prisoners and others chained up which can only see shadows. As stated in the reading, facing the truth at first is frightening and many run back which I do agree on. Some people are not ready to face reality and rather just mentally stay in a dark cave.

But once outside their eyes would get use to the light. The cave symbolises perception but not the truth or reality. In reference to the analogy of the sun, Plato discusses the difference between

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave the people think that their entire reality is the shadows that they see on the walls of the cave. Plato explores the truth and criticizes that humanity does not question what is real. Plato explores that the human understanding and accepting of what is real is difficult and

*** Born into an influential and wealthy family, Plato devoted his life to philosophy and the path to enlightenment. Plato believed in the rule by the few best, elitism, and in the superiority of philosophers. In order to illustrate the difference between the enlightened philosophers and the unenlightened wanderers, Plato devised the allegory of the cave. In this allegory, people are chained in a cave, forced to see only the shadow of objects passing by a flame. These unenlightened people actually believe that the shadows they see are the real objects.

Firstly, human beings should always search for the real truth because not everything that a society perceives as reality is real considering that some of it might only be the reflection of truth. In the allegory written by Plato, he described a group of cavemen who believed the shadows on the cave walls were the real image of objects instead of the objects themselves due to the fact that they have never seen any other objects besides the shadows in their entire life. The shadows

The state of most human beings is depicted in this myth of the cave and the tale of a thrilling exit from the cave is the source of true understanding. Plato has portrayed the concept of reality and illusion through the allegory of the cave. One of Socrates' and also of Plato's, chief ideas was that of forms, which explains that the world is made up of reflections of more perfect and ideal forms. In the Cave