Ng Ai Yee 1201591 - Plato's Allegory of The Cave

Ng Ai Yee 1201591 - Plato's Allegory of The Cave

In the Plato's Allegory of the cave, Socrates depict a line of people were chained and looking on a blank wall. As the fire was cast, they were looking onto the shadows on the wall. These shadows are the closest concept to their sense of ideal thing. Therefore it seems almost closest to the reality for them.

The people that sits inside the cave has seen only a limited reality of things and they believe that is the real thing. However, Socrates evaluate that what people think is the real thing is actually a false impression. Socrates uses the image of a group of people being chained in the cave and those people have limited access only to the shadows from the casting fire to explain to Glaucon. He also said that these people only see the shadows and believe that is the reality without knowing it was actually an illusion.

Later on, if the chained person were to release from the cave, he might not be able to accept what he sees. The casting shadows were actually created by the fire casting. He might have been through some rage, but he will learns to accept it and understanding it.

After seeing the truth, Socrates said that the unchained person would still miss the cave and the people who were chained inside. He might even sympathize them, for they will never know the truth. This is because, he realized that if he went back, he might not get accepted. Even if he try to free other chained person, he might get harmed by other prisoners as well.

The cave is in quite a dark condition where people inside finds it hard to see clearly inside. As these people were chained and unable to move as they please the things they see and experience is definitely limited. However there are also another world outside the cave and these two places were separated only by a wall. As the other people moves outside of the caves, theirs shadows were projected by the fire onto the walls inside the cave. Those people who are chained down are unable to see the outside and presumed that the shadows are real, which in fact those shadows are not real.

On the place outside the cave, there are lights and everything is clearly seen. If one of the chained people had escaped from the cave out into the place outside the cave, he might gradually learn and starts to experience new things. Gradually, the escaped one will be able to identify things clearly and realizes the real thing is outside of that cave and see that the cave is no longer a real thing to him. The escaped chained person is satisfied of what he had experience. Then he remembers those who chained inside the cave and start empathize for them. He thinks that those people are pitiful for they will never get to know the real thing outside the world and will forever live in the darkness and believing that the shadows are real. He realized he would rather roam outside the cave rather than staying inside the cave. He may have gone back and tries to persuade others to follow him, but he afraid that no one will believe him and will kill him over it.

This concept of “The Cave” has allegorical meaning and are somewhat quite symbolic.
The caves symbolizes the contemporary world of ignorance while the chained people represent the neglectful people in this ignorant world. The walls represents the limits in thinking set out by the surrounding community and the shadows are somewhat an illusion.
Hence, In this allegory of cave, it has portray a criticism over our negligence towards the existence in every aspect of the world.




**Read more :
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave
http://www.bachelorandmaster.com/creationofknowledge/allegory-of-the-cave.html
http://www.slideshare.net/guest71fae1/an-analysis-and-interpretation-of-platos-allegory-of-the-cave-1416697