The Allegory of the cave (By Plato)

Plato 's allegory of the cave reflects much our stubborn fixation for conclusions and theories that are in fact quite far removed from reality . It bespeaks of our proud understanding of everything around us while we maintain the arrogance by rewarding those who are able to do well in describing and naming what are merely shadows and copies . As Plato pointed out , the prisoners of the cave , who have been chained to see shadows of images ever since childhood , are rather quick to celebrate the truth and ingenuity in their observations even while

such eager exercises are imperfect and restricted to nothing but copies of what is real (Plato 104 . These prisoners mistake the forest for the trees . They lack full scope of a bigger universe simply because they have not ventured out to perceive the entire plenitude of the world . The moment that they are freed of their chains and led outside , which is symbolic of their supposed enlightenment , they are at once assaulted with bright images and pictures which become painful to their senses The ignoramus is wringed with agony for he has not been accustomed to such an explosion of vivid colors and sounds . Consequently , once he returns to report his findings to the rest of the prisoners , he is dismissed and ignored for blabbing nonsense and for disturbing

The story of the allegory of the cave may have been an accurate depiction of the proud philosophers and thinkers during ancient Athens yet its message still finds application in our time . For instance , a person who is born into society immediately inherits established grammars of morals and customs . He thrives in that paradigm not knowing that there is a variety of cultures and traditions waiting to be discovered . The same person is encouraged to participate in the norms which will deprive him of the chance to know more other than what is being taught . In this sense , he is no better than the prisoner imprisoned by ignorance and conceit . Even worse is that the person becomes hesitant to leave his small niche . However , Plato remarks that once we have a taste of the truth and of enlightenment , chances are we will never choose to return inside the dark cave (Plato 104

Works Cited

Plato . `Book IV . Plato 's The Republic . New York : The Modern library 1941

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