Plato Essays

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. We humans usually think that the most real things are solid, and can be touched. Plato thinks differently, he thinks that the most real

Apology. According to Socrates, no one know if death might be the best of all good things that

Plato’s short story the Allegory of the Cave, Plato portrays a scene in a cave to the reader that analyzes human actions. The story is about a group of men that are chained for their entire life. The only thing they are exposed to are shadows on the wall of a fire burning by people behind them. The people exposing these men are hiding the truth of the outside world. Plato reveals that humans are easily fooled into believing what they see. 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.

In what ways did the writings of Plato’s Republic and Hayy ibn Yaqzan foreshadow the theme of enlightenment?

The Athenian philosopher Plato is said to be one of the most important figures of the Ancient Greek world. It could also be argued that he is one of the most important figures in the entire history of Western thought. In his many written dialogues, he expands the ideas and different techniques of his teacher, Socrates, of thirty years. Plato’s way of living was to ask ruthless questions that made you think about the reason you are living and why you are the way you are. Plato writes of Socrates, and the beliefs they share, in Republic where he explores the ideal soul of a nation and of an individual. He believes that there is a certain way that people should be and act. Plato discusses the question

The Euthyphro is one of Plato’s classic dialogues. It is a well-verbalized piece which deals with the question of ethics, consisting of a conversation between Socrates and one other person who claims to be an expert in a certain field of ethics. It is additionally riddled with Socratic irony in which Socrates poses as the incognizant student hoping to learn from a supposed expert, when in fact he shows Euthyphro to be the nescient one who kens nothing about the subject being holiness.

“The Republic” is a book written by Plato in 380B.C. and was considered one of the most important works of political theory. Plato was born in 428 B.C., he founded the Academy in Athens where he gave higher learning for people. He believed that the Academy would produce future leaders who could help his country become a luxurious and just. His idea was that a just city is a city where every part of it does its own work without interfering in others work (principle of specialization). In his book, Plato describes how the perfect political system should be. He first discusses the definition of justice by a certain argument between Socrates his teacher and some other friends. Each idea or point of view given by one of the interlocutors reflected his own

What if every known thing in the world turned out to be misguided? What if people within the world learned ways of life and adapted to environments only to find out that it was all a lie? In "The Allegory of the Cave" from Plato's "The Republic", the same questions were considered and analyzed by Socrates, the speaker of the story. The Philosopher Socrates explicates his allegory of great curiosity to Glaucon, a man of whom Socrates shares his wealth of wisdom with. Socrates' purpose in expressing the allegory is to show how the human race may not always see the truth but rather convince themselves that what they see is the truth. In other words, people allow themselves to believe what they would like to believe. As Socrates speaks, he has a questioning, curious and wise tone towards Glaucon, he speaks as if he does not even know the truth himself. By continuously asking Glaucon questions, Socrates is sparking a somewhat confused and thoughtful reaction. Glaucon himself sounds so deep in thought, he cannot utter more than a "very likely", "I agree", or "very true" to Socrates. By listening to or reading Socrates' words, the intended effect of his allegory is to provoke an opinion towards what is the actual

Little Johnny runs up to his parents going a hundred miles an hour. He rambles off a variety of questions as his curiosity of the world overcomes him. He wants to know how things work and why they function that way. In a way, little Johnny could be compared to Plato. However, Plato goes beyond the superficial questions into deep, philosophical thinking. Plato craves wisdom, and his questions of humanity are never ending. Beauty, justice, true philosophy, belief, truth, form of good, and so many more are some of the virtues that he writes about. Plato spends a fair amount of his writing developing the masses opinion on the virtues, and how they contradict what his worldview is. He writes in Symposium, The Republic, Apology, and Phaedo of questions

Thucydides and Plato have a clear set boundary in their writings as to what type of assertion they are fabricating. Thucydides sets a very narrow view with his piece of The Peloponnesian War that holds more weight in solid evidence of what a “good life” is demonstrated as. Plato, on the other hand, has several writings that go into depth of weighing what someone’s soul ought to have within itself. The statement of Thucydides making empirical claims, with Plato making normative claims, is supported with evidence in their respected works.

An individual’s life journey is linked to the process of enlightenment, which can be achieved when one realizes the world they have been dwelling in is an illusion and is not under their own control. The science-fiction movie The Matrix, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, and Golden-Globe award winning film The Truman Show all have the same underlying theme of escaping an artificial reality. “The Allegory of the Cave” is a dialogue that criticizes human perception. In the dialogue, prisoners draw a parallel between the dwellers in the cave who believe the shadows on the walls are real to humans who believe in perceptions based on empirical knowledge. In the movie, The Matrix “the matrix” is a computer engineered world that is blinding individuals from the truth. The film The Truman Show, displays the life progression of Truman Burbank from the artificial world to the real world.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave has many meanings and delivers a powerful message. The meanings and powerful messages can be connected to today’s society and social conditions in which people live in. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave consists of prisoners that see shadows casted by the ones keeping the prisoners. The shadows casted on the wall by a fire can be truly misleading. The prisoners are misguided and don’t worry or think about freedom. The one that escapes and follows the light sees the true world and becomes enlightened. There are many connections that can be developed to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.

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

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.

Socrates was a Greek from Athens who is credited as the founder of Western Philosophy. He is a prominent and known through the accounts of classical writers. Through his presentation in Plato’s dialogues (his student), he has become renowned for his contribution to the matters of ethics. Socrates also made a notable lasting contribution to the field of epistemology .His influence and an idea remains a strong foundation for much of western philosophy that followed (Plato 51).

In “ The Allegory of the Cave” 360 BCE, Plato emphasises that the cave explains human existence and envisions the world as a dark cave, and humans trapped as prisoners in that cave. Using symbolism he supports this statement by demonstrating to his students that our minds conceive the sources of shadows and the material world we live in as false truths. His purpose is directed towards his students, to help others out of the cave, to reveal the burden of false truths also know as the shadows. Plato uses a didactic tone to help his students understand and encourage them not to stay in the cave, but to free themselves and help others become free of the shadows the

A comparative analysis, according to Reference, is defined as: “a study that compares and contrasts two things. The study can be done to find the crucial differences between two very similar things or the similarities between two things that appear to be different on the surface”. The Truman Show and Plato’s Allegory share multiple similarities, despite being written during different time periods. Although the storylines differ, there are several points throughout these pieces of work that can be compared.

“Plato Apology” relates the trial of Socrates (469-399) B.C.E known as the father of Western Philosophy. Socrates, a son of sculpture and the midwife had a queer with most Athenians due to his point of view on values and beliefs. Charged with impiety and corrupting the Youth, Socrates’ defends himself by persuading the jury of his innocence with tangible reasons which made his arguments effective.

Essential question: What does Plato’s Allegory of the Cave reveal about his and Socrates’ ideas regarding knowledge in society? What do these ideas reveal about Plato’s and Socrates’ attitudes towards themselves and others?

Searching for the truth is very challenging, as the world today entrenched in lies. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” briefly tells a story about cavemen being chained on most parts of their body, restring all movement including their head, since childhood. Then, he discussed the consequences inflicted onto the cavemen, specifically their perspective towards the truth after being chained for a long period of time in the dark cave, which resembles many events occurring in a person’s daily life. Based on the discussed effects, the author argues that human beings should always seek the real meaning of truth.