From an early age, we are taught what is right, what is wrong, how to act, and how to live by societies standards, whatever society one may belong to. Most people don’t question why things are the way they are and even if they do they still turn a blind eye to the truth and go on living the life they live. However, what if I were to say the life we live and are made to believe in, is just an illusion mankind created themselves? Reading Plato’s Allegory of the Cave caused me to pause and reflect on how much truth and knowledge we are actually lead to believe, even in today 's society. From our education system, religious and cultural beliefs, the workforce, and more. In this short essay, I will be writing about my personal thoughts about the “system” and how it relates perfectly to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave.
The first point I would like to address is our learning system. From a very young age, we are placed in a room with other children learning the exact same material, the exact same way, from a teacher who was also taught the same exact way when they were younger. To me, this is society’s way of “manufacturing” their future working adults. Everyone is expected to learn the same way regardless if they learn better a different way or not. There is a
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We are made to believe certain things and when someone reveals a different truth to us we are quick to get defensive and not believe the other person until an actual truth is shown. Just as Plato describes dragging the people into the sunlight from the cave. Just as the light is hard to adjust to so is the reality of the world. So many people stay in the dark and “chained to a wall” their whole lives because it’s all they know. They do not realize there are puppeteers in the background pulling the strings and even if they question they disregard their
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Diego Velazquez’ Las Meninas are both commentaries about different ways of life. Velazquez gives insight into the daily life of the Spanish monarchy, and Plato, on the other hand, enlightens about the various stages of life on the path to higher knowledge. Though they use different mediums, Plato and Velazquez use a similar framework to illustrate the ways people live. They both use a hierarchical structure to divide their works into pieces that make the works more straightforward for the reader or viewer to comprehend.
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.
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”, Plato’s idea of the human who escaped the cave, but came back to tell about his learnings but the other people in the cave did not want to listen to him since they believed that the cave was the real truth and did not want to be educated about the outside
Adam Choquette Period 7 Mr. Coulter Honors English II March 3, 2016 Breaking Man’s Chains In the last chapter of Anthem, Equality reflects, “The best in me had been my sins and my transgressions”(98). He no longer holds the belief that society is simply ‘misguided’ or that they are ‘forgiving’. Instead, Prometheus embraces individuality, rejecting the concept that, “We are all in all and all in one” held by his former society (19). “I am done with this creed of corruption,” Equality declares, no longer willing to slave for his brothers (97).
“An unexamined life is a life not worth living” - Socrates. Both ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory of ‘The Cave’ develops a question of reality and how the world is perceived. This can be closely connected to one of the great Greek philosopher’s sayings where an “unexamined life is a life not worth living”. Socrates states this due to the increasing number of citizens who lived their lives without questioning the world around them. ‘The Matrix’ and Plato’s allegory explore how when the world is properly examined the outcome is a new understanding and perception of life.
Plato’s Allegory of the cave represents life/death/rebirth. Life/death/rebirth is a popular archetype that most authors use in fictional books. Plato’s Allegory of the cave begins with people that are locked in chains inside of a cave. The people inside the cave see shadows on the wall of animals and creatures that they think represents their life. This cave is an illusion of life that the people are experiencing.
Ap Language Summative Assesment Unit 1 Lamin Williams 9-12-16 4A Mrs. Archer 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
Rather than that, it merely makes people seem oblivious to the actual truth due to lack of their education of their surroundings. This is much like the prisoner who was freed because at first, he had the exact same beliefs as his acquaintances, but later he learned the real truth about the world. After reading Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, one can be lead to believe that Plato was trying to teach that uneducated people are “imprisoned” by their own ignorance. This statement is supported when the prisoners in his allegory don’t believe the freed prisoner.
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
Plato’s Republic, Book 7, talks about the metaphor referred to as "the allegory of the cave. " This metaphor in philosophy is use to describe the importance and effect education or lack of education has on the human mind. In book VII, education is referred to as a light that brightens the different paths that exist in life. It helps open the human mind to things that it was unaware of. Another point made in book VII, was that by educating yourself you become less ignorant to what is out there in the world.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is at its core a metaphor for what Plato believed to be wrong in Greek society at the time. The fact
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.
#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.
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.