• Home Page
  • Comparing The Symposium And The Allegory Of The Cave By Plato

Comparing The Symposium And The Allegory Of The Cave By Plato

Superior Essays
Show More
Plato was an outstanding and, until this day, a well-known philosopher in the Classical Greece. Also, he is considered to be one of the essential characters within the development of philosophy. He is major influence was his teacher, Socrates, who impressed in him that ‘love of wisdom’ and He passed that onto his own student, Aristotle. Some of Plato’s marvelous works are: Phaedrus, The Symposium and The Allegory of the Cave and the themes depicted in them are freedom (philosophical education), madness (in love and in life), love and beauty ( in all the aspects of our lives.) Now, I’ll go on into a deep analysis of Plato’s works previously mentioned, I’ll express my point of view about them and why even though Plato’s philosophy is based …show more content…
For him, philosophy is the 'love of wisdom ', the way out of ignorance and therefore what will free us from living in mental, physical and spiritual bondage. First and foremost, in The Allegory of The Cave he gives us the message that philosophical education is the transforming of who we are and how we get attached to anything or anyone else. In other words, the process of life, but to go onto this journey we have to want to be transformed so we could be able to see and study the deepest meanings of everything in life because otherwise we 'll be bond to whatever the society thinks as one - the cave. If we don 't voluntarily develop our own understandings and create our own margins, the society will create them for us and impose them on us. Secondly, in Phaedrus he talks about madness, truth, beauty and love within our souls and spirits. He portrays that for the Greek society madness was seen as a disadvantage and detrimental for the human being because it …show more content…
But at the same time it is a door of self-awareness where we can reach our full potential and as he said, nourish and grow our soul 's wings which will most definitely be seen as madness. A divine

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    Similarities Between Socrates And The Allegory Of The Cave
    • 1730 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Similarities Between Socrates And The Allegory Of The Cave

    I believe the differences between Euthyphro and the prisoner are their abilities to accept their faults, being humble enough to reach the summit of knowledge, and a similarity between how important philosophic ideals are in their lives. These two stories involving Socrates deal with a premise of knowing what is true even though the truth is constantly debated. Socrates shares a key similarity with the prisoner as they can both be seen as philosophers as they try to enlighten others even though the others fight against it. Euthyphro shares a key similarity with the cave dwellers as they are both ignorant and stick to their ideals of what is true. The prisoner and Euthyphro are polar opposites and display the differences in Greek society.…

    • 1730 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Compare And Contrast Plato's Allegories Of The Sun And The Cave
    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Plato's Allegories Of The Sun And The Cave

    Plato also explains how individuals and the Forms are related through the Allegories of the Sun and the Cave. The world, he says, is split up into two realms: the visible and the intelligible. The visible realm is made up of everything that is tangible and able to be perceived by our humanly senses. The intelligible world is made up of the Forms or in other words, the abstract, unchanging absolutes like Goodness and Beauty that exist in the universe. They are objects of wisdom that possess unchanging truths that the rational part of our minds set out to fully comprehend.…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Decent Essays

    Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    I think that the main points illustrated by Plato's Allegory of the Cave are that people only know what they experience and only choose to accept what they have experienced, people who have knowledge have a responsibility to share it and that ignorance is bliss. The men trapped in the cave demonstrate how people will only believe what they have experienced by shunning the man who tries to tell them of the outside world. They aren't willing to accept that there is more to life than the wall and shadows in front of them. Plato believes that even the world we live in may just be another wall that is blocking us from seeing the truth.…

    • 428 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Decent Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Iliad: Achilles As Trouble Hero
    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Iliad: Achilles As Trouble Hero

    His rage and wrath are the subjects of the Iliad poem, yet unlike many other characters of the epic poem, this is the only character that has undergone numerous of the numerous of the transformation to depict and show his extreme personality to the enemy and comrades. Under this consideration, his power, pride and excessive anger is considered as the flaws of the tragic…

    • 1170 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    The Republic Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Republic Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    The preface of The Republic of Plato states that “One must look at the microcosm of the drama just as one would look at the macrocosm of the world which it represents.” This statement asserts the significance of the dramatic details found within the text, which not only help to further Plato’s argument, but are also crucial to our understanding of the text as a whole. At the climax of The Republic of Plato lies one of philosophy’s most prominent and beautiful images, the Allegory of the Cave. Within the seventh book of the text, Plato conveys Socrates’s narration about an image of a cave, and throughout this historic and famous image, there are a plethora of the aforementioned dramatic details included. Particularly, some of the details that contribute most to the reader’s understanding of the text include the repetition of the phrase “by Zeus” by Glaucon, the inclusion of mainly dialogue and very little action in this section, the conversation between Glaucon and Socrates on how the…

    • 1112 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Compare And Contrast Plato's Cave Allegory
    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Plato's Cave Allegory

    According to Plato’s Cave Allegory, the prisoners are kept in the cave since birth as they can only see and name the shadows of objects on the cave wall. This causes the prisoners to mistaken the appearance of reality due to the reason that they have never seen anything outside of the cave. Similarly, in The Matrix, the main character, Neo is trapped inside a reality created by a computerized program as the program was designed by the artificial intelligence that took over the world. Furthermore, Neo is chained down to a machine that takes away all his body’s heat and energy to power the machine. Both the prisoner and Neo are completely unaware that the reality they think they are living in is a false reality.…

    • 444 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing Socrates 'Allegory Of The Cave And Apology'
    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Comparing Socrates 'Allegory Of The Cave And Apology'

    The significance of Socrates’ enlightenment is similar to standing on the shoulders of giants and viewing an attitude about philosophy. In light of his teaching, stories such as Allegory of the Cave and Apology by Plato seem to parallel work authored by Voltaire. Voltaire’s The Good Brahmin is a metaphorical story about a Brahmin man sensing his life pursuit toward knowledge and wisdom has left him burdensome and empty. To illustrate, the Brahmin man states, “I teach others and myself am ignorant of everything” (Voltaire, n.d.).…

    • 283 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing Plato's The Apology And The Allegory Of The Cave
    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparing Plato's The Apology And The Allegory Of The Cave

    Ancient philosopher, Socrates, taught many people in Athens, Greece through out 300 BC. One of his most promising students, Plato, published his ideas into “The Apology” and “The Allegory of the Cave.” In these two readings Plato writes what Socrates thought about living an unexamined life, a life not worth living. In most Socrates’ teachings he said that you should not conform to others beliefs or ideas.…

    • 567 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparsion Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Comparsion Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    It’s an undeniable reality that the ancient Greek philosophers understood the meanings of the material as well as the cosmic universe, the way they are portrayed in their writings. In Allegory of the Cave, Plato is speaking metaphorically. The cave is a metaphor for the reality which we live in. The story is the same as The Matrix in the fact that there are different realities that are believed in. Even though there are obvious differences, you can tell the movie drew from Allegory of the Cave immensely.…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Compare And Contrast Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Compare And Contrast Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    People encounter reality in different ways, there are people who mistake the epistemic knowledge as their reality while there are others who dive further and investigate into the true reality. The prisoners in ‘Plato’s allegory of the cave’ and the police officers in ‘Changeling’ (Clint Eastwood, 2008) believed in the reality of epistemic knowledge, whereas Christine Collins (Angelina Jolie) and the prisoner who left the cave tried to transmission their knowledge and refused to believe in the conventions forced upon them by the people around them. In this essay, I will explicate how the film ‘Changeling’ bears feature that are similar to ‘Plato’s allegory of the cave’. The implication of the fake reality on Christine Collins and the prisoner,…

    • 950 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Allegory Of The Cave
    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Rhetorical Analysis Of Allegory Of The Cave

    Alisha Saxena Philosopher, Plato, in his published work, Allegory of the Cave, describes a dialogue with Glaucon about the importance of truth and human nature. This in depth discussion about reality is expanded on throughout Plato’s book, The Republic. Plato uses The Republic in order to convey how morality and virtue is of utmost importance. Plato’s purpose of Allegory of the Cave is to communicate that our perceptions of the truth are limited, and how the truth might not always be what is predicted or imagined. He further supports this purpose by using extended metaphors, intense, connotative diction, and an eloquent, questioning tone.…

    • 1108 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Comparing Plato's Republic And Book VII Of The Republic
    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparing Plato's Republic And Book VII Of The Republic

    Plato was an early Greek philosopher who instituted the Academy and is most well-known for his writings of unparalleled influence. Throughout his life, Plato had written many dialogues over numerous subjects, some being justice, epistemology, political philosophy, and even theology. One of Plato’s most successful and widely read dialogues was the Republic. Before the Republic, many of Plato’s dialogues consisted of a speaker, Socrates, refuting the positions of his interlocutors, and many of the dialogues do not end with an adequate answer. However, the Republic delivers a position in which Socrates takes on justice and its relation to happiness.…

    • 998 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Great Essays

    Comparing Plato's Symposium And Sappho
    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages

    Comparing Plato's Symposium And Sappho

    The texts Plato Symposium and Sappho, Selected Poems discuss the topic of love as experienced by a select few of society- and thus reject the notion that love is a universal human experience. Through this essay, love will be examined as it pertains to each text and then these ideas will be observed to understand how they reject the notion that love is a universal human experience. Set in ancient Greece, Plato’s work titled Symposium presents his view that love can only be experienced by men and boys -through various speeches given by characters who are giving eulogies on love. Although many different ideas are presented through the speeches, one common theme holds true throughout all seven speeches: not once is the notion of real and virtuous…

    • 1841 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Great Essays
    Read More
  • Improved Essays

    Literary Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Literary Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    One common reading suggests that it demonstrates that our perception and our senses, like those of the cave dwellers, are subjective and unreliable and cannot provide us with objective truth. This can only be found through abstract thought and philosophical reasoning. Another important interpretation states that the allegory highlights the complexities of education and ignorance, demonstrating not only how humans may be advanced and enlightened through education but also explaining why the ignorant may cling, sometimes violently, to their own ignorance. As one of Plato’s most famous pieces of writing, “Allegory of the Cave” has not only provoked great philosophical debate, it has also inspired many more popular reflections ranging from the 1999 movie The Matrix through Mumford and Sons’ song “ The…

    • 908 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
    Read More
  • Superior Essays

    A Critical Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave
    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages

    A Critical Analysis Of Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

    However, in order for Glaucon’s and our understanding of this idea to further to the connection between “the effect of education and of the lack of it” (514a), Socrates offers his audience an allegory throughout Book VII of The Republic that has become immensely popular throughout centuries. Unlike before where Socrates would simply discuss his reasoning, The Allegory of the Cave offers a clear visual representation that critically reflects on society’s social and political themes while also making the journey up the “Divided Line” more understandable. Each element discussed in this allegory is symbolic, making it imperative that the audience pays close attention in order to fully comprehend the significance of the depicted scene. He begins by asking the listeners to “imagine human beings living in an underground, cavelike dwelling, with an entrance a long way up,…

    • 1443 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
    Read More

Related Topics

Ready To Get Started?
Discover
Company
Follow
©2024 Cram.com
Privacy Policy |  About Ads |  Site Map |  Advertise  | 
  • Cookie Settings