Plato's Allegory of the cave. What is meaning?

Question:Need to write a paper on what it means to live in a cave with only what your care givers want you to know

Best Answer - Chosen by Asker: Need to write a paper on what it means to live in a cave with only what your care givers want you to know

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. For example, Plato would argue that ideas transcend the physical world. Think of a cup. That cup could fall on the ground, it could crack, break... eventually it won't exist anymore. However, the idea of the cup will go on forever. The idea, once thought of, cannot be undone. It cannot be broken or tainted.

Plato also argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. We see the cup that can be broken, the shadows of ourselves. However, it is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles, but the process is painful. When the cave slaves (ourselves) climb from the cave (perceive and understand ideas), we see the world for how it should be. We see that ideas are eternal and perfect, even though the physical world crumbles.

Plato's main concept of the cave is: people see reality as the visible world when reality really is more than the visible world.

It begins with the assumption that if a group of prisoners had their necks and hands chained down in a cave, they would be unable to see behind themselves.

With a fire behind them, they would be more capable of seeing shadows of images as they passed by the fire.

As time passed, the prisoners began to indentify the shadows and issued the different shadows names.

However, if one of the prisoners was to climb out of the mouth of the cave, he would not be able to see anything at first because the light would be so blinding.

But as his eyes gradually began to focus to the light, he would begin to see images more clearly. The light enables the prisoner to see the true image and not just the shadow of the image.

If this prisoner was to go back to the cave, he would find that it would be impossible to conform back to his old world.

At first he would not be able to identify shadows because his eyes would not yet be adjusted to the darkness in the cave.

If the returning prisoner were to tell the other prisoners about the light and that their shadows were not real images, they would not believe him and would accuse him of trying to disrupt their way of life.

Finally, since the prisoner could no longer fit in, the others would be forced to kill him.

I hope this helps!

That it is shadows of forms and that the true form is unfathomable.