Plato’s Allegory of The Cave

Plato’s Allegory of The Cave

This is a two part essay. First, I will describe Plato’s Allegory of The Cave. Then, I will apply the cave analogy to my own life.

P lato was a Greek philosopher who founded “The Academy”, the first ever University in western history. Plato was also one of Socrates’ students. Many of Plato’s written books were in the form of dialogues between his mentor Socrates and another person. In the Republic, Plato’s objective was to create a just society where each person performs tasks for which he or she is destined. Plato focuses on intellectual enlightenment and, argues it is the path to true liberation of the body, the mind and the soul. Thoroughly, In the Allegory of The Cave, Plato explains (through a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon) that people should be more aware of life and should abolish any kind of emotional distress on their minds in order to understand the essence of life. The Allegory of the Cave is a fascinating parable because it illustrates how one can be caught in an engulfing darkness that prevents the individual from truly educating. In this paper, I will examine Plato’s Allegory of the cave and attempt to discern how intellectual enlightenment can lead to liberation.

First, the excerpt, which is portrayed by shackled and confined people, is a metaphor representing the toddling and child ages of humans. Like the confined people, children are not allowed to mosey freely outside of their home and must stay close to their parent’s watchful eye. Those living in the underground den have their heads positioned in a way that they must not view a fire blazing behind them. The heads of the people only see the shadows cast by the fire and objects passing by behind them and they can only guess as to the actual physicality of the object. This also is very similar to children who are curious about objects around them. Although children do not understand complex objects, they do want to know the purpose and function of the object. Consequently, Plato used the caves to symbolize “ignorance”, the outside of the cave to point to “reality” and the sun to symbolize “knowledge”. Conversely, the prisoners signify any person. Whereas, the shadows on the wall stand for an “illusion”, or equally a “dogma” of reality. This dogmatic reality is incessantly perceived by everybody in today’s life. Likewise, Aldous Hexley said, “At least two thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity, idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political idols.”