Analysis of Platos Allegory of the Cave Essay -- Papers Plato Allegor

Analysis of Platos metaphor of the CavePlatos illustration of the Cave presents a vision of humans as break ones backs chained in front of a go over observing the shadows of things on the countermine surround in front of them. The shadows atomic number 18 the only reality the slaves know. Plato argues that there is a basic flaw in how we humans mistake our expressage perceptions as reality, righteousness and goodness. The allegory reveals how that flaw affects our education, our spirituality and our politics.The flaw that Plato speaks about is swear as real, what one sees - believing absolutely that what one sees is true. In The Allegory of the Cave, the slaves in the caves know that the shadows, thrown on the wall by the fire behind them, are real. If they were to talk to the shadows echoes would make the shadows appear to talk back. To the slaves the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images. (Jacobus 316).In the allegory, a slave is and so brou ght out of the cave, in what Plato refers to as he ascent of the individual into the intellectual world (Jacobus 319). Once out of the cave the slave discovers that what he thought was real is not. He learns to comprehend all of these natural images as real and true. Since he has been in the dark, both literally and metaphorically, the decipherable blinds him. Representing knowledge, the light is too brilliant for him to see and comprhend. He must be re-educated. eldest he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of the men and other objects? then the objects themselves (Jacobus 317). He learns that the reflections are truer than shadows and the objects truer than reflections. He must deal with a new reality that does not exist within the cave. Plato says that these people who a... ...ary friend when we are younger. Our ideational friend is very real to us, but as we suck older or make the ascent to the world of knowledge, we reject our imaginary friends. We are faced with a different reality where we start to call up that what our eyes show us is the only truth. We forget to question things and dont adopt that maybe there is yet another ascent, out of this bigger cave of the light.Human beings knowledge of goodness, reality, and truth will always be limited by our fear of new ideas and new perspectives. As long as we are afraid of questioning, we will be willing to put to stopping point anyone who ascends and returns to the cave with the truth.Work CitedCorinthians II, The New Jerusalem Bible. Henry Wansbrough, gen. ed. New YorkDoubleday, 2005. Jacobus, leeward A. A World of Ideas. 7th Edition Boston Bedford/St. Martins. 2006.