Cave

Cave

  • Submitted By: lraleigh
  • Date Submitted: 12/28/2009 4:35 AM
  • Category: Philosophy
  • Words: 504
  • Page: 3
  • Views: 1

The allegory has a display of the dismal condition of the majority of humans in the world. We are like chained slaves living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave. Here we have been from our childhood, incapable to move or to see afar, being prevented by the chains from turning round our heads. We are like the odd prisoners in this cave who see only their own shadows or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave. To them the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images, and they cannot differentiate the voices of one another from the echoes emanating from the surrounding obscurity. The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's account of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when somebody is knowledgeable to the rank of philosopher. The Allegory also criticizes people who rely upon or are slaves to their senses. The chains that truss the prisoners are their senses.
Given this allegory, we might think that if only the prisoners were freed from their chains by some other force, they would stop to mistake shadows for realities and would remain unharmed of their past mistakes. The allegory shows that there is no such easy escape from illusions is possible. At first, when any of the prisoners is liberated and required abruptly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will undergo sharp pains. Further, the glare will disturb him and he will be unable to see the truth he previously identified with their mere shadows. If he at that moment was told that what he saw before was an illusion and that now he is approaching actual existence and has a clearer vision, he will be puzzled. He will persist to believe that the shadows he saw for so long were truer than the objects, which are now shown to him.The first test that the liberated prisoner has to face is to get adapted to his new state and to...

Similar Essays