Paste your essay in here…The quote “And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! Human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they ought been from their childhood, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads.” (Yale.learningu.edu) is taken from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which was introduced by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work Republic. In the allegory, Plato parallels people’s ignorance in the Theory of Forms to prisoners confined in a cave. All that they can perceive is the wall of the cave while a flame flashes behind them. In this paper, I will summarize the quote and the reading as a whole while also analyzing the historical environment of which the piece of literature was created such as the political and personal background. The writings of the philosopher Plato have also created long-term influences which I will analyze as well as the influences historians believe it has had on western civilization as well as the parallels seen between the allegory and the people of today’s century.
I personally agree with the interpretations of the analogy of the humans and the cave as it brings up existential inquest of truth, understanding and the essence of consciousness. 2400 years ago, Plato composed an allegory in part 7 of The Republic where he explained an almost utopian civilization by exploring ideas such as law, probity, and beauty. Plato coined a parallel that equalized life to being chained in a dark cave watching shadows on a wall. The allegory begins with a collection of prisoners who have been confined in the same spot since their birth with no understanding of their external environment. As a fire behind them gives a glow, shadows are cast on the only wall they are able to see. The prisoners understood the shadows and flickers as the original realities, but randomly one of the prisoners is released and taken out of the cave for the first time. At first, the daylight hurts their eyes and they encounter the new setting disorienting. The prisoner is revealed that their surroundings are real while the adumbrations in the cave were mere reflections of the original entity. Eventually, their eyes and perception adjust as they can now not only see their reflection which they had never seen, but they are no longer disturbed by the sun's rays. However, when the freed prisoner rebounds to the cave to share their findings but they are no longer able to see the dark as they used to, the other prisoners now look down upon their returning member as idiotic and of little relevance. The prisoners who were chained went as far as to push the other away with force in order to protect their established views. The opposition to releasing them is introduced by Plato in this passage as an analogy of what it is like to be a philosopher attempting to educate the populace. Plato was emphasizing the level of comfort that people are with their ignorance and level of hostility to anyone that denotes it. However, the allegory can be examined in numerous fashions, such as the allegory being related to the theory of forms, which like shadows, things in the physical world are reflections of true ideal forms. Hence the example that was covered in class where there are many chairs but only one true ideal chair in existence. In this way, the cave points to several significant inquiries including the source of consciousness.
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Plato was a student of Socrates who was condemned to death by the Athenian government for agitating civil order, hence why Plato committed his book The Republic to challenging Athenian democracy and favoring the control of philosopher kings, claiming that populations are too ignorant to fairly and competently rule themselves. Socrates had no formal education yet he encouraged countless scholars throughout time, making him an influential person in Western philosophy. Socrates however, is affiliated more with a method than ideologies. The Socratic method being the example focuses on answering through asking questions. Nevertheless, Socrates fixed philosophy on a unique path, one that was pursued by his student, Plato. Plato originated from an affluent aristocratic family, who actually are mentioned and created into characters in many of his writings. "Plato, unlike Socrates, experienced formal education in mathematics, music, literature and Ideal gymnastics, and philosophy, all of which are discussed and cited extensively in Forms his writings." (The Cultures of the West: a History) Plato claims that the world we see is imperfect and chaotic yet people create order within in, opposing any contradictions they encounter. We see parts of things, not seeing the larger scale. An example being the observation of two regular chairs, the chairs can be very different in composition but we still claim they are all chairs. "They possess some quality, an ineffable “chairness,” that determines their identity. Plato’s philosophy argues that “chairness” really and truly exists; it is an example of what he terms the Ideal Forms. The point is that it does exist and that everything we perceive as a chair possesses it." (The Cultures of the West: a History)
The writings of the philosopher Plato has also created long-term influences which I will analyze as well as the influences historians believe had on western civilization. I personally agree with the interpretations of the analogy of the humans and the cave as it brings up existential questioning of reality, knowledge and the meaning of life. Have we, as a civilization, shifted into the prisoners Plato described by having to determine whether holding a specific image of reality will not only benefit ourselves but hold constant in our consciousness? Plato’s prisoners can be seen as a parallel with people influenced by 21st-century media and technology. We accept reality in the news and the internet and relying on other people regardless of the validity of others and seeking authority figures instead of credibility. Plato has played a role in western philosophy and education through his writings which challenge the government, politics, and the meaning of life itself.
The quote “And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: Behold! Human beings living in an underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they ought been from their childhood, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads.” (Yale.learningu.edu) is taken from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave which was introduced by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work Republic. In the allegory, Plato parallels people ignorant in the Theory of Forms to prisoners confined in a cave. I have summarized the quote and the reading as a whole while also analyzing the historical environment of which the piece of literature was created such as the political and personal background. The writings of the philosopher Plato have also created long-term influences which I will analyze as well as the influences historians believe it has had on western civilization. The Republic revolves around an ideal society where an enlightened philosopher king governs all of society in response to the frustration of the Athenian democracy following the death of Socrates.