Paste your essay in here… Plato is often regarded as the founder of higher learning in the Western world and frequently accepted as the most pivotal figure in the development of philosophy. This being said, perhaps the most well renowned example associated with his conception of ethics is the allegory of the cave. This allegory is a model that utilizes the top-down approach and specifically employs a metaphor between the sun and the cave to emphasize that humankind can think without awareness of the realm of Forms. Plato specifically says that an individual may think themselves into the good life as knowing the good makes you want the good. To quickly explain the picture painted in this allegory, Plato compares individuals who are unknowledgeable in the Theory of Forms through the symbolism of prisoners chained in a cave. These prisoners are unable to turn their heads; therefore, all they can see is one wall of the cave. Behind the prisoners, a fire illuminates puppets as they cast shadows onto the wall. As the prisoners are unable to turn their heads, all they see and hear are the shadows and echoes created by objects that they cannot see. Therefore, with the prisoner’s lack of understanding of the forms in mind, Plato suggests that when the prisoners refer to and discuss the shadows that pass before their eyes, they are referring to the shadows rather than the real objects that cast the said shadows. However, the true objective of Plato’s allegory is captured by the hypothetical that if a prisoner were removed from the cave, the prisoner would finally see beyond just the shadows. He would see the dimensions and depth of the real world; thereby, moving toward enlightenment or being enlightened in comparison to the other prisoners. Continuing, Plato then suggests that it would be the escapees obligation to explain his findings to the others in the cave. In comparison, the escapee would be an enlightened thinker; therefore, the prisoner would have a moral imperative to inform the others. Hence, Plato must want the cave to not only be interpreted in reference to human perception, but also that knowledge gained through the senses is simply opinion and that real knowledge is only gained through philosophical reasoning. Through top-down thinking, this allegory brings together Plato’s idea that the things people see are merely shadows of real things because if an individual is “chained,” shadows will be what they perceive to be real. Throughout this paper, I will present how Plato’s allegory of the cave utilizes a top-down approach of ethics to successfully emphasize that people are slaves to their senses and empirical intelligence unless they can ascend to a state of enlightenment.
Plato’s use of a top-down approach corresponds to his ethical beliefs and motivations. Plato often begins by defining the most important questions and issues first; therefore, his succeeding work will always have direction. The top-down approach plays a role in Plato’s allegory of the cave because top down thinking involves the understanding of the form of the good in order to act good. In other words, understanding the form of the good can lead to an enlightened state. In relation to this idea, Plato writes it is wrong to think that an individual “can infuse the soul with knowledge when it was not in there, just as sight may be instilled in blinded eyes”(Republic 105). In other words, Plato is implying that enlightenment cannot be taught or trained, which is directly contrary to bottom down ethics. In using top-down thinking, Plato suggests that “there should be an art of this turning around, involving the way that the change will most effectually be brought about. Its object will not be to produce in the person the power of seeing…it assumes he possesses it… aim is to remedy this defect” (Republic 106). Here, Plato acknowledges that everyone has the ability to understand the good if they are guided towards it. Plato emphasizes that an individual can not be completely taught the good, but led in that direction. This theme specifically implies top-down thinking in the allegory of the cave because top-down thinking plays a role in his metaphors as he aspires to achieve an overlying theme of the importance of humans understanding what it takes to achieve the good. This is an example of a top-down approach to ethics as he tests his general ethical theory of reflective understanding in a theoretical situation. In deriving the consequences of the prisoners absence from the real world, Plato is able to conclude that our language is not names for the physical objects that we see, but actually names of things that we must grasp with our minds. Although there are limitations to this top-down approach, the importance of it is that Plato’s theories rest in predefined goals that favor the understanding of the good. In fact, the entirety of the allegory is to explain Plato’s thesis that the men trapped in the cave “would hold that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things” (Republic 515c).
In terms of the allegory of the cave and its accuracy in describing life, the experience of the prisoners in the cave, in a sense, coheres to the passage of time of ones life. In the beginning of one’s existence, individuals are childlike and their perception of reality is hindered by the innocence of their “natural condition.” Moreover, Plato explains our “natural condition” as our condition before “education,” with “education” the result of our inevitable exposure to the realities of the world. Therefore, the allegory of the cave is simply a description of one’s philosophical process. In essence, this process is the development and encountering of new knowledge. Thus, Plato argues that this process is how an individual achieves the enlightened state. Above all, it becomes clear that the goodness and justice people originally believe the world and other people in the world to have is not guaranteed to occur. This being said, when Socrates agrees that the freed prisoner would not choose to return to the cave and their past state of idealized imprisonment, the allegory veers. The allegory veers because often in real life, individuals want to return to a cave to hide. Dealing with reality isn’t always easy as it seems; therefore, the cave serves to represent a problem-less place. Furthermore, this allegory must be analyzed in terms of the major philosophical themes that uphold it. Looking closer, there are many different layers and aspects to the allegory. Because of this, some interpreters of his philosophies suggest it is difficult to understand whether Plato is identifying theory of knowledge and reality, or practical philosophy. However, this is a false dilemma because the purpose of Plato’s allegory is to call into question everything people believe they know. By rattling our strongest beliefs and convictions, Plato demonstrates that knowledge of one’s environment is derived from perception. Further, the degree of our awareness is related to how deeply we perceive it. Therefore, if the deeper we perceive things increase, our awareness then absolute awareness is the result of perception of infinite attributes.
Within the allegory of the cave, Plato utilized many metaphors that both accurately relate this hypothetical situation to real life, and effectively prove Plato’s model as a top-down approach to ethics. To begin, the cave represents people who believe that knowledge is strictly empirical and is the result of what we see and hear in the world. This is important because the cave is most often interpreted as the negative aspect of this allegory and shows that empirical thinking only traps one in a “cave of misunderstanding” and does not allow that person to achieve the good. Continuing, the shadows represent the false perceptions of the blinded people that think empirical evidence leads to knowledge. Plato explains that “in the world of knowledge, the essential idea of the good is the limit of what can be seen, and can barely be perceived” (104). This being said, Plato assumes that if you were to always believe that what you see should be taken as truth, then often you will be seeing an alternate perception of the truth. During their time in the cave, the prisoners play a game that shows how those blinded by empirical knowledge may believe a ‘master’ to be an individual with complete knowledge of the empirical world. Here, Plato suggests that it is absurd to admire someone of this stature, as it is the philosophers, not the plebeians, who are intellectuals. Lastly, the escape and the return of the prisoners represents the courageous philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside of the cave and outside of empirical knowledge. Thereby, his experience represents a philosophers journey when searching for truth and wisdom (with the Sun representing eternal philosophical truth and knowledge). When the escapee returns, the reaction to the escapee’s new knowledge by the prisoners who remained in the cave represents that people are scared to know philosophical truths.
This allegory is a model that utilizes the top-down approach and specifically implies that an individual may think themselves into the good life as knowing the good makes you want the good. The true objective of Plato’s allegory is captured by the hypothetical that if a prisoner were removed from the cave, the prisoner would finally see beyond just the shadows. Continuing, Plato suggests it is an enlightened thinkers duty to enlighten others; therefore, the prisoner who escaped would have a moral obligation to inform the others. Throughout this paper, it is clear that Plato’s allegory of the cave utilizes a top-down approach of ethics to successfully emphasize the importance of the enlightened state.