Allegory of the Cave by Plato

 Allegory of the Cave ( For classroom purpose)

About Plato

Plato was born into an aristocratic family and educated according to the best precept available. He eventually became a student of Socrates and later involved himself closely with Socrates’ work and teaching. Most of Plato’s works are philosophical essays, with Socrates as a Character speaking in a dialogue with one or more students or listeners.

About the essay

This essay is about our perception regarding our understanding and knowledge. It is a demonstration of the fact that if our perceptions are what we must rely upon to know the truth about the world, then we know very little about it. We know what we perceive, but we have no way of knowing anything beyond that. The contrast between knowledge and ignorance has important moral and political implications: they do not understand what is truly good for people, and cannot live a good life; likewise, the political ruler who does not understand what is good for society will bring misery to his people.

Summary

In the ‘Allegory Of The Cave’ Plato suggests a theory in regard to the idea of human perception. It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates. Plato ultimately claims that knowledge gained through the senses is nothing more than a simple opinion. As a result, Plato also claims that to have real knowledge, one must gain knowledge through philosophical reasoning. Plato uses his work of the ‘Allegory Of The Cave’ to help distinguish between individuals who are mistaken by sensory knowledge for truth and individuals who see the real truth and gain real knowledge.

Plato sets the setting of the story in a cave in which prisoners have resided since birth. The prisoners are chained and shackled, their legs bound, and their heads tied so they cannot see in any direction other than ahead of them, facing forward at a blank, stonewall. Behind the prisoners is a fire and a raised walkway where people along this walkway create shadows, which are projected onto the stonewall. Since the shadows are only what the prisoners can ever view, they are forced to believe that these shadows of reality, are real.

One of the prisoners is freed of his chains and escapes the cave. The sun initially blinds the prisoner until his eyes make natural adjustments. The prisoner then sets his eyes on life outside of the cave in which he is completely shocked at the world he discovers and does not believe it can be real. The prisoner realizes his new surroundings in which he then realizes that his former view of what he thought was reality was wrong. The prisoner also makes a connection that the sun is the source of life. The prisoner returns to the cave to inform the other prisoners of what he has discovered outside of the cave. The fellow prisoners do not believe him and in fact, threaten to kill the man if he tries to set them free from the chains.

Analysis

According to Plato’s theory, the prisoners in the cave represent individuals who believe that knowledge comes from empirical evidence, what we see and hear in the world. The idea of the cave is also to help explain how those who believe empirical knowledge is ultimate knowledge and truth are trapped in a cave of misunderstanding.
The shadows cast onto the wall represent the false perceptions of the prisoners, those who believe empirical evidence is knowledge and truth. According to this, if one believes that empirical evidence should be taken as truth, then that individual is a believer of what is shadowed of the truth.
The escape of the prisoner represents an individual such as a philosopher, one who seeks knowledge outside of the cave and empirical evidence of our senses. The sun, which is blinding at first, represents philosophical truth and knowledge. The other prisoner’s reaction to the findings of the escaped prisoner represents the fact that people fear accepting philosophical truths, Plato’s belief of what is actual truth and knowledge.

The "Allegory of the Cave" ultimately represents an extended metaphor that displays the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The central concept behind this allegory is the basic opinion that everything that we perceive are imperfect shadows of the ultimate truth.

Plato used the two rhetorical techniques of allegory and dialogue in the passage. Question-and-answer or the Socratics Methods.