Comparing Plato And Bacon's The Allegory Of The Cave

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 …show more content…
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