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Reality And Reality In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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Jacob Lumpkin Professor Morrow PHIL-1123 25 January 2017 WIT: Plato’s Cave Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is something that speaks to me in a very deep and direct way. It shows that we know much less than we think and that we are prisoners. We begin our lives in the cave accepting what we are taught by our parents, religion, school teachers, and government etc. What we perceive as reality is not always accurate as is shown in this story. We are chained up by our own preconceived beliefs and bias’s, seeing puppet shadows believing them to be reality. As prisoners we are weak and easily manipulative, complacent in our own ignorance. Willful ignorance is what the prisoners are in, not wanting to be proven to seeing a distorted reality. But what happens when a prisoner breaks free and is enlightened? What happens when someone breaks free of their preconceived beliefs and begins to ask the deeper questions of life? Questions like why am I here? What is the purpose of life? What is reality? …show more content…

He sees that people blindly follow the majority and authority figures, not asking why what we do or believe is right. They now mock him for questioning their beliefs and proposing new ideas. They call him foolish and begin to conspire against him. But is it wise for us to blindly follow something just because a majority believes it? Are those who taught us growing up looking out for us? Or are they manipulating us? When a prisoner is finally able to freely think for himself and challenge what he was originally taught why do people call him crazy when they can’t even explain why they believe what they believe

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