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Plato, Allegory Cave. Comprehending the Mind's Aging Eye "The Allegory of the
Cave," by Plato, explains that people experience emotional ...
Plato, Allegory Cave. Comprehending the Mind's Aging Eye "The Allegory of the
Cave," by Plato, explains that people experience emotional ...
Allegory of Cave. Socrates' influence ... analysis. This allegory, the allegory of the
cave, may be read as a parable of political theory itself. Like ...
Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" - Analysis and Summary. Plato's "Allegory
of the Cave" - Analysis and Summary The "Allegory of the ...
Symposium Cave Allegory. ... Plato does not directly refer to his Theory of Forms in
either The Symposium or "Allegory of the Cave," but it is alluded to in both. ...
Submitted by rp1221 on August 5, 2008
Category: Philosophy
Words: 1178 | Pages: 5
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Socrates' influence on Plato was a profound one, and Plato uses Socrates as a major character in many of his works. In The Republic, Plato presents an allegory that is useful in illustrating the difficulties and rewards of critical, philosophical analysis. This allegory, the allegory of the cave, may be read as a parable of political theory itself.
Like all parables and allegories, the richness of its teachings lies not in the literal details of the story, but rather in the larger philosophical questions implied by the details. Just as the parable of the boy who cried wolf, for example, is not really meant to teach the mechanics of sheep herding or wolf tracking, but instead is a compelling allegory because it teaches us about issues such as honesty and human needs, same with Plato's allegory of the cave. It is not really about caves at all. It is about grasping with the questions we need to understand in order to be enlightened about the world. In The Republic, Plato has the character of Socrates begin the allegory of the cave by telling us that the allegory is supposed to illustrate the process of achieving understanding and enlightenment. This is why the allegory is very useful as a parable of political theorizing, for political theory is a history of the search for enlightenment.
What is the human condition as it pertains to enlightenment or ignorance? In the allegory, Socrates contends that, in order to begin answering this question, we should imagine ourselves living in an underground cave. As residents of this cave, we are unaware of the most fundamental aspects of our environment. For example, we do not know that we are actually inside a cave, for we assume that the surroundings we observe constitute the entire universe. We have no idea that above us is a ground level, a sky, a sun, for we automatically believe that all that we see is all that is real. Our vision in this cave Socrates explains, is very limited. The cave is dimly lit,...
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