Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”: Nature of Reality

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Main body
Conclusion
Reference

Introduction

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a well-known attempt to explain the nature of reality. Plato was one of the first philosophers who were thinking about the destination of all humankind. He developed his own theory of the understanding of reality. Plato considered that a person should pass several stages in order to achieve full understanding of phenomena and his thoughts are relevant up till nowadays.

Main body

Plato was an outstanding philosopher of Ancient Greece. He is famous for establishing Western philosophy. Plato had a great teacher —Socrates, and he became a teacher himself for Aristotle. Plato wrote his dialogues that became the basis for various subjects such as ethics, logic, philosophy, mathematics, religion, and rhetoric. His exceptional and genius ideas included the theory of forms, platonic realism, and platonic idealism.

“The Allegory of the Cave” is written in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and Plato’s brother — Glaucon. It is a part of Plato’s prominent work “The Republic”. In the book, Socrates employs a vivid metaphor that describes the way education influences the person’s comprehension of the world.

In the first part, Socrates describes dark settings where people exist in a cave since birth. They are in chains and they are not able to move their necks and see anything behind them. They can look only forward. A wall is in front of them. There is the fire behind them. One more wall separates prisoners from the fire. There are puppeteers on the wall who show different figures and statues. Prisoners can observe only the shadows from the performance. They believe these shadows are the only real things in the world. Plato (n.d.) writes “From the beginning people like this have never managed…anything besides the shadows” (p. 1). That is the way Plato refers to the initial stage of human education — imagination. I can imagine that I have lived in a cave. I was thinking about success. On this stage, I understood success as something I was shown. It was the first step of my escape because I became familiar with the concept. For instance, I found James Bond to be a successful man. Then I realized that nothing could be so easy in real life. I faced a new factor. It was the second step when I decided that I had to start changing some of my habits and even traits of character to accomplish my aim. According to Plato (n.d.), this is the first stage of liberation when prisoners get free and can move their heads: “…prisoners are set free from their chains and, along with that, cured of their lack of insight…” (p. 2). In my experience, that is the stage when I have understood that success in real life differs from success in films. I read a story from life and came to the conclusion that I had to work hard and never give up in order to achieve something. On the next phase, prisoners leave the cave and see the sunlight. It is difficult and painful, but they get used to it. In my story, that is the period when I experience the failure in life. As a result, I have achieved the stage of cognitive thinking as far as I am able to define success. I have understood that success is a combination of frequent failures and victories. That was the third step of my escape. Thus, I achieved the understanding gradually.

Conclusion

That was the only logical order of escape; otherwise, I would not manage to succeed. In the last part, Plato writes that prisoners return to the cave and explain everything to others. In my life, that is the situation when I advise my friends that they should wake up early, be positive, and be creative to become successful. Such consideration of success can assist me in any area of life as far as it is a universal truth that works with all types of activities.

Reference

Plato. (n.d.).The Allegory of the Cave. Web.

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Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”: Nature of Reality

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