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Truth In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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There is an age-old desire within all of us to prove that are right – to prove that what we have to say is the truth – and oftentimes we will do whatever it takes to prove that fact. Whether it is the sense of pride we get when we realize we’re right or the pleasure we receive from correcting people and changing their ways, everyone wants to be told that they know a truth about something. Yes, we want to prove ourselves, but at what cost? At what point does our quest for a god-like and error-free existence become detrimental to the way we live and interact with those around us? It is not until we lose sight of the purpose of right and wrong as moral educational tools and begin to see them as a way to achieve superiority, that we fall into a …show more content…

In his Republic, we see a group chained and only able to see the shadows of things outside the cave – their truth is that everything is a shadow. This is everyone’s truth, this is right, until someone is released. Upon exiting the cave, they see the world around them and learn that the shadows on the wall are simple depictions of physical things beyond the cave. The sole adventurer outside the cave attempts to go back into the cave and tell everyone that what they know is wrong, that they are right because they have witnessed what is beyond the cave – the truth they are telling, their truth is the way and only way. Plato believed that “absolute, objective Truth” should “be housed in a particular privileged individual,” taken in the form of a philosopher-king (Salvatore 155). The character of Rev. Nathan Price in Barbara Kingsolver’s The Poisonwood Bible attempts to evangelize a country as a religious philosopher-king, acting as a prime example of Plato’s work. Throughout the novel, Kingsolver shows us the inherent problems that occur when an individual takes it upon himself to be the sole deliverer of truth and the road of destruction that position leads to when Truth is mistaken as the authority of one rather than the entitlement of

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