Since the dawn of time, societies have argued how, where and what is the source of our inherent knowledge. Whether it was a gift brought forth by a divine power or a part of our self-discovery journey. Through, the ages, many notable writers such as Plato and Bacon tried to provide their own answer to the age-old question. For example, Plato a profound Athenian philosopher, known for his literary work, The Republic, offers a satisfactory answer to what he believes to be the stem of knowledge and the barriers that block us from obtaining that knowledge in regards to the state of the human mind, through his short story “The Allegory of the Cave” about a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon who acts an interlocutor. Additionally, Bacon’s essay titled “The Four Idols”, elaborates on Plato’s main ideas and the obstacles that limit us from reaching our latent ability to access that knowledge. By creating four mystical idols that categorize human characteristic and thought. In either literary work the respective writers offer a well-rounded answer to where knowledge originates from and the obstacles or boundaries that we naturally establish due to our humanity, but they highlight that in-order to truly understand one’s self-knowledge, one must first understand himself. By creating such masterful pieces of literary works, both authors’ ideas are empowered to resonate thru to the reader even after their death. In the allegory, Plato gives the reader an accurate and vivid picture of a mythological dark cave “prison” to a group of people who represent those who are too ignorant, who flied to a reflection of false knowledge and perceive it as their own fountain of knowledge.
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Describing the group of imprisoned human-beings as superficial, bound to their misperception in their dark and gloomy caves since their birth searching to find their individual “true” sources of knowledge thru the obscure reflections of the light. According to Plato the wall is like as a screen that can only reflect the surreal of the truth as highlighted in his quote “a wall, like a screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets” (Plato 868). This obscurity between the setting of the cave and the world of light has a physical representation of a barrier or contemporary world that one must cross to reach true illumination as well as one’s own thought process. Similarly, Bacon further evaluates the concept of knowledge in greater detail by categorizing human characteristic and though in the context of four idols which are the idols of the Cave, the idols of the Tribe, the idols of the Marketplace, and the idols of the Theater. Each one of these idols represents apparent weakness in humanity that invoke the same “walls” that obstructs our search for true knowledge. For example, Bacon argues the falsehood of knowledge that can only be “true or real” solely based on the senses in his quote as described in his Idols of the Tribe “For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things” (Bacon 882). Additionally, Bacon believes that by depending on our senses for knowledge we create our own caves/walls as Bacon stats “the den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of nature” (Bacon 882). Bacon highlights the point that by creating a fraudulent measure of things based on our own fleeting senses we create empty reflections or shadows that personify our egos and limit us in finding the “true” light. Likewise, Plato suggests this idea, that our reliance on our sensory perception has created rustles chains that bind us to the contemporary world are, he says “Severed from those sensual pleasures… like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth… they had been released from these impediments to the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly” (Plato 873). In general, Bacon reechoes Plato’s ideas about the falsehoods of the reliance on our senses to discover true knowledge and the generated hindrance in his remaining idols. In addition, both literary works, regarding the falsehood of our senses as a key idea that limits us from developing “true” sources of knowledge connects the question “what is the true source of knowledge?” without averting their main idea. In
Describing the group of imprisoned human-beings as superficial, bound to their misperception in their dark and gloomy caves since their birth searching to find their individual “true” sources of knowledge thru the obscure reflections of the light. According to Plato the wall is like as a screen that can only reflect the surreal of the truth as highlighted in his quote “a wall, like a screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets” (Plato 868). This obscurity between the setting of the cave and the world of light has a physical representation of a barrier or contemporary world that one must cross to reach true illumination as well as one’s own thought process. Similarly, Bacon further evaluates the concept of knowledge in greater detail by categorizing human characteristic and though in the context of four idols which are the idols of the Cave, the idols of the Tribe, the idols of the Marketplace, and the idols of the Theater. Each one of these idols represents apparent weakness in humanity that invoke the same “walls” that obstructs our search for true knowledge. For example, Bacon argues the falsehood of knowledge that can only be “true or real” solely based on the senses in his quote as described in his Idols of the Tribe “For it is a false assertion that the sense of man is the measure of things” (Bacon 882). Additionally, Bacon believes that by depending on our senses for knowledge we create our own caves/walls as Bacon stats “the den of his own, which refracts and discolors the light of nature” (Bacon 882). Bacon highlights the point that by creating a fraudulent measure of things based on our own fleeting senses we create empty reflections or shadows that personify our egos and limit us in finding the “true” light. Likewise, Plato suggests this idea, that our reliance on our sensory perception has created rustles chains that bind us to the contemporary world are, he says “Severed from those sensual pleasures… like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth… they had been released from these impediments to the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly” (Plato 873). In general, Bacon reechoes Plato’s ideas about the falsehoods of the reliance on our senses to discover true knowledge and the generated hindrance in his remaining idols. In addition, both literary works, regarding the falsehood of our senses as a key idea that limits us from developing “true” sources of knowledge connects the question “what is the true source of knowledge?” without averting their main idea. In