Plato's Myth Of the Cave

PLATO’S MYTH OF THE CAVE

"Plato's myth of the cave is standard fair for any student's introduction to ancient Greek philosophy. Plato was the student of Socrates, and many of Plato's works are repeats or furthering of what Socrates himself said. Socrates, was ordered to drink poisonous hemlock after being convicted of corrupting the youth of Athens. Plato's parable of the cave features characters so blinded by their immediate surroundings and realities that they can see nothing else.

The Allegory of the Cave, also commonly known as Myth of the Cave, Metaphor of the Cave, The Cave Analogy, or the Parable of the Cave, is an allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". (514a) the allegory of the cave is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon, at the beginning of Book VII (514a520a).

The Story

Imagine several prisoners living in an underground cave with a long entrance across whole width of the cave. They have been here from their childhood and their legs and necks chained so they cannot move and only can see a wall that is in front of them. The chains have prevented then=m from turning their heads around.

Behind them there is a fire is blazing in the distance. They can only see their own shadows, which the fire has projected on the wall of the cave that is in front of them. They see nothing else but the shadows since they are not allowed to move their heads. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a screen which puppet players show their puppets. The puppets players projected on the wall images of statues of men and animals made of wood and stone and various materials. The prisoner can only see these images and their own shadows. Therefore, to the prisoners the images and shadows are real.

The prisoners give names to all the images that they have seen before them, to them the truth will literally be nothing but the shadows and the images. One day, one of the prisoners has been freed by an old man who sympathizes with his condition. When the prisoner is liberated he begins to stand and turn around to look for the source of the light. At first, all this hurts his eyes, since he ahas watched the images and the shadows, which have been projected for years and years. And then the old man said to him that what he saw before were just a mere illusion, the old man pointed out that the statues and not the images are real but he is stubborn and insists that the shadows are much truer than the statues.

Eureka!!

Based on the story, there are some moral values and opinion can be conclude.

1.) All people live in the cave (ignorance) and watch shadows on the wall, which is what they think is the world.

2.) Ignorance is bliss, and people don't want to leave it (people attacking those who leave)

3.) Only philosophers can find the truth (Light/The Sun)

4.) There exists a philosophical 'perfect' version of every object and thought and what we see in the world are only a representation of that perfect version

5) Besides, Philosophy offers no truth. Only the lofty ideas, ideals and opinions of sinful people.

6) This allegory is still applicable today especially when we're raised with loads of beliefs e.g. religions, politics etc. that we are sometimes blinded how we should live our life i.e. ought to live.

7) Besides, its reflect ourself.

Watch short video, visit http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UQfRdl3GTw4.