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Plato's Allegory Of The Cave Essay

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Plato’s republic, on the whole, is a medley of metaphysics, epistemology and ethics. Plato dedicates the entire book to figuring out the ideal definition of knowledge. The allegory of the Cave, the analogy of the divided Line and the analogy of the Sun are all connected to explain Plato’s idea of the forms. Plato argues that philosophers are the most radical because they are lovers of knowledge, wisdom and truth. Since only philosophers hold the key to true knowledge, they can distinguish between a friend and an enemy. This skill is essential to ruling a city, which makes philosophers the best candidates for being a guardian. One cannot make the claim that there is justice in a city, until they know the complete truth. This paper will prove …show more content…

The allegory of the Cave is presented by Plato, as a dialogue between Glaucon and Socrates, the latter being the narrator. Socrates paints a picture of the allegory for readers, as he asks them to imagine prisoners trapped in a cave all their life, facing a wall and unable to move their heads. The allegory can be summed up in three main parts, which are the imprisonment in the cave, departure and return to the cave. The prisoners are misled by the shadows, which they believe to be reality. This is clear as Socrates says, “Then the prisoners would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of those artifacts” (515c). This quote relates to Analogy of the Divided Line, since the knowledge of the prisoners would match the lower sections of the divided line. There is a fire behind them and some sunlight shining through the hole at the top of the cave. Plato describes the experience of one of the prisoners being freed from the cave. The process is simultaneously painful and enlightening. The reason for this is because the freed prisoner is not used to the light shining directly into his eye and also because, they slowly

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