Political Theory

Allegory of the Cave , Book VII , The Republic by Plato

In gist , Plato 's Allegory of the Cave in his book The Republic is a paradigm of people 's perception of truth and people 's efforts to obtain knowledge . Plato believed in an absolute truth that existed beyond human perception . The things that we understand to be truth are mere reflections ' of the reality that is beyond us . That reality is what Plato refers to as pure forms

The Allegory of the Cave is about a group of people comparable to a

society or a city , if you may . They are situated at the very inside of the cave , are chained in a manner that fixes their head to face only in the direction of the wall of the cave with their backs to the entrance The light provided by a flame at their backs allows shadows to be cast on the wall , just like a group of people watching a movie with a projector . Their position in the cave only allows them to see shadows of the real things which they believe to be the truth . Since all of them have only seen these shadows all their lives , they pretty much reached a consensus of what the truth is - that a shadow of say , a chair is actually THE chair

However , a hypothetical situation was raised by Plato where one has been released and is allowed to see the real things that cast shadows upon the walls of the cave . He is mesmerized and arrives at a conclusion that what he has been seeing all his life were not real but rather shadows of actual things . When he goes back to the rest of his chained companions , he shares his experience . Plato says that visionaries like these people who see the actual things are likely to be ridiculed and even killed for their insights

Philosophy is usually defined as the pursuit of knowledge guided by logical reasoning . As it was in the cave , people will discuss , analyze things which they see . They try to make sense of these images , building knowledge through the years and analyzing them over and over . However as Plato explains , the things that we perceive are mostly mere shadows of things that are out there ' - the pure forms . We are not automatically equipped to perceive the absolute truth . There are some exceptionally enlightened people though , who catch glimpses ' of reality as it should be . These glimpses ' motivate people to inquire and deliberate and attempt for the truth or some would consider good or excellence in the way they live their lives . Although , Plato believes that it cannot be attained , this is what makes people improve as they philosophize and acquire more knowledge . This process is necessary in the transformation from chaos to . Chaos is confusion of the things that the cave dwellers see on the wall , while is making sense of them and eventually being enlightened by seeing the pure forms p...