Ignorance Vs. Enlightenment
The story “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is an interesting explanation of how a society works. The story describes how the people of a society can be considered stuck in a cave because of their ignorance. In the beginning, we are introduced to people who are tied up and held captive. They’re chained to the ground with guards watching them, facing a wall with what they consider as a fire behind them that shows various shadows from the outside of the cave. These people have been stuck inside of the cave all of their lives until one of the prisoners is set free.
Plato begins to explain this thought saying “See what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error” ( Page. 1 …show more content…
The freed prisoner wouldn’t be able to revert to his former ignorance after acquiring this new found knowledge because of the human instinct to advance. Plato goes more into detail with this thought by stating “Those with beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be natural.” ( Page 3 ) To translate this into more modern terms, he’s saying that rather than remaining ignorant, the prisoner will continue to grow in knowledge, for it is now “a natural desire” for them to continue moving forward. His reasoning for them to continue moving forward is that their souls desire to be with those who have seen also obtained this same knowledge and they wish to be among them.
Towards the end of the story, Plato restates that all he has said has only been his opinion,. If his allegory is right or wrong, he believes that people who obtain knowledge and see “ the light “ view the idea of good last.“ But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all and is only seen with effort”. To clarify, Plato is saying that people who obtain knowledge believe in facts first and the idea of what is “ good “ comes
The story “The Allegory of the Cave” by Plato is an interesting explanation of how a society works. The story describes how the people of a society can be considered stuck in a cave because of their ignorance. In the beginning, we are introduced to people who are tied up and held captive. They’re chained to the ground with guards watching them, facing a wall with what they consider as a fire behind them that shows various shadows from the outside of the cave. These people have been stuck inside of the cave all of their lives until one of the prisoners is set free.
Plato begins to explain this thought saying “See what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error” ( Page. 1 …show more content…
The freed prisoner wouldn’t be able to revert to his former ignorance after acquiring this new found knowledge because of the human instinct to advance. Plato goes more into detail with this thought by stating “Those with beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be natural.” ( Page 3 ) To translate this into more modern terms, he’s saying that rather than remaining ignorant, the prisoner will continue to grow in knowledge, for it is now “a natural desire” for them to continue moving forward. His reasoning for them to continue moving forward is that their souls desire to be with those who have seen also obtained this same knowledge and they wish to be among them.
Towards the end of the story, Plato restates that all he has said has only been his opinion,. If his allegory is right or wrong, he believes that people who obtain knowledge and see “ the light “ view the idea of good last.“ But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all and is only seen with effort”. To clarify, Plato is saying that people who obtain knowledge believe in facts first and the idea of what is “ good “ comes