11/25/2023 0 Comments Cave allegory explainedThe Allegory doesn’t solely represent our own misconceptions of reality, but also Plato’s vision of what a solid leader should be.The prisoner is expected to return to the cave and live amongst his former prisoners as someone whom can see better than all the rest, someone whom is now able to govern from truth and goodness. Plato, at this point describes the philosopher kings who have recognized the Forms of Goodness as having a duty to be responsible leaders and to not feel contempt for those whom don’t share his enlightenment. The other prisoners laugh at the released prisoner, and ridicule him for taking the useless rise out of the cave in the first place.The others cannot understand something they have yet to experience, so it’s up to this prisoner to represent leadership, for he alone is conscious of goodness. ” Upon returning to the Cave, the prisoner would metaphorically (and literally) be entering a world of darkness yet again, and would be faced with the other unreleased prisoners. When this has occurred, the ultimate stage of thought has been achieved, and that is “understanding. After his eyes adjust to the sunlight, he begins to see items and people in their own existence, outside of the cave.When the prisoner looks up to the sky and looks into the Sun, and recognizes it as the cause of all that is around him? ‘–he has perceived the “Form of the Good! This point in the passage marks the climax, as the prisoner, who not long ago was blind to the “Form of the Good” (as well as the basic Forms in general), now is aware of reality and truth. The natural reaction of the prisoner would be to recognize shadows and reflections. ” The comfort of the perceivement, and the fear of the unrecognized outside world would result in the prisoner being forced to climb the steep ascent of the cave and step outside into the bright sun.Once the prisoner climbs out of the cave and is fully immersed in the sun’s rays, Socrates continues to explain the prisoner’s bewilderment, fear, and blindness to the objects he was now being told were real. This stage of thinking is noted as “belief. Plato describes the vision of the real truth to be “aching” to the eyes of the prisoners, and how they would naturally be inclined to going back and viewing what they have always seen as a pleasant and painless acceptance of truth. Once the prisoner is released, he is forced to look upon the fire and objects that were once his perception of reality, and then he realizes these new images in front of him are now the accepted forms of reality. This line of thinking is said to be described as “imagination,” by Plato. They are actually names of things that are not visible to us, things that we can only grasp with the mind. The point so far of the allegory is that the general terms of our language are not “names” of the physical objects that we can see. This is an important development to the story because it shows us that what we perceive as real from birth is completely false based on our imperfect interpretations of reality and Goodness. Because we know that the puppeteers behind them are using objects to liken the shadows to reality based items and people, the prisoners would know nothing else but the shadows, and perceive this as their own reality. To the back of the prisoners, lie the puppeteers who are casting the shadows on the wall, which the prisoners are perceiving as reality.As Socrates is describing the cave and the situation of the prisoners, he conveys the point that the prisoners would be fundamentally mistaken as to what is reality.
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