Deception In Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato uses shadows as a metaphor to show deception and limited information. In Plato’s story, there are many prisoners in a cave. They are chained so they can’t move and all they can see are the shadows that are cast onto the wall in front of the prisoners by puppeteers. The shadows are not real objects, but the prisoners believe that they are because those shadows are all they know and see everyday. This metaphor that the shadows, illustrated by Plato, can still be seen in today’s society in the media, the government, and the deception of other people. A lot of the information that people obtain come from the news, social media, and other types of media. The news has a lot of influence in forming some people’s opinions. The problem is that the many media outlets have biased opinions or provide …show more content…
Regular people can also use deception and lie to other people. Some who seem honest are still being deceptive because they hid their true intentions. These people don’t appear to be presenting false or altered information, but there is a difference between honesty and integrity. Honesty is simply not telling a lie, while integrity is knowing what is the right thing to do. “A person may be entirely honest without ever engaging in the hard work of discernment that integrity requires” (Carter 364). People can make a claim with honesty, but because they are hiding their bad intentions, they lack integrity. In this case, the shadows represent the claim. The object that cast the shadows represent the true intentions. An example that Carter gives is a man lying on his death bed next to his wife as he decides to be honest and confess that he had an affair. At first, the man seems to show integrity because he is honest. In reality, that integrity is just a shadow cast in front of his wife since he only confessed to die in peace and burden his