Platos Allegory Of Caves Essays - Platonism, Analogy, Allegory

Plato's Allegory Of Caves 1. Plato's Allegory of the Caves. 2. In Book VII of The Republic, Plato tells a story entitled The Allegory of the Caves. In this story he describes a dark underground cave where a group of people are sitting in one long row with their backs to the cave's entrance. Bound to their chairs since childhood, all the humans can see is the distant cave wall in front of them with shadows being displayed. Their view of reality is solely based upon this rather limited view of moving shadows. This is what is real to them. It is important to note that the prisoners do not realize that they are being held captive, since that existence is all they have ever known. 3. I think this is a great explanation for the truth being only mere images that are subject to be classified by our perception and intellect. I find Plato's allegory to be very easy to follow and to understand. It is a great example of the world being how we perceive it and how our view of reality can be bound and limited, and sometimes altered. We perceive things everyday, no matter where we are going or what we are doing, there's no way we can avoid it. Every thing we experience in life as a person is subjected to our own personal understanding of what those things are. Whether it be a human, plant, or animal, a concept or abstract thought-we categorize and identify with these things by associating them with what we know, what we've learned, and what and how we discern them to be. Now whether we limit ourselves personally on what we know as real is somewhat of an individual matter. We choose what we want to learn and what we don't want to learn. We do, and refuse to do, all sorts of things that could expand the knowledge of our environment and the rest of the world around us, and this, in turn, sets our own standards and limitations; creates our own personal cave so to speak. We create our own beliefs or follow others'-sometimes blindly, I might add. Our own distinguished personalities and upbringing would give way to structure and develop our individual They are oblivious to the truths of the outside world, save for the shadows dancing on the cave wall in front of them. Bibliography none Philosophy Essays