Shadows and Truth Plato uses the visual of the cave to help people realize how their senses deceive them and give them a belief system but not knowledge. The images seen on the walls of the cave look like and sound like anything that performers want to portray. This isn’t knowledge. This is a gimmick used by people of authority to control, and maintain people to their liking. It’s an enticing of the senses. So what happens when we look beyond the shadows? The description of the cave and the diffused sunlight and the actual path leading up to the light is a very fitting description of what happens when we transcend from doxa coma in search of episteme. Like the expression, “The truth came to light.” Even the experience of learning can
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The powers that are in control of masses of people can also easily control the information that people receive, like the shadows on the wall. People who can’t act freely to ask questions and learn on any subject they choose are not free gain knowledge, they can only have beliefs in what they are allowed to see. So we see how easily our senses form our beliefs when we are not free to develop and learn as we choose. On the alternate hand, we cannot force people to the truth. Someone who has been misled or misinformed cannot be shown the truth and expected to take it whole heartedly and without questions or fears or doubts. We can’t drag people to the truth and shake pointed fingers at them demanding acceptance. The knowledge we need, we need to want and be ready to receive. We need to be autonomous. Like Plato wrote, “And if he were forced to look at the firelight itself, would not his eyes ache, so that he would try to turn back to the things which he could see distinctly, convinced that they were clearer that these other objects now being shown to him?” (Plato) Forced adherence to a belief isn’t knowledge, it is compliance. America is a great place because of our right to free speech. We can look up topics on any subject that is legal and not be punishable by our government. This easy accessibility a breeding ground for media rhetoric that is false and detrimental to society as a whole. Learning is about finding the truth, it is part of a journey and cannot be handed to you. Knowledge almost has to be earned. Plato describes an accurate process of gaining knowledge when he writes, “At first, it would be easiest to make out shadows, and then the images of men and things reflected in water, and later on the things themselves.” (Plato) We learn by going from ideas, to books, to pictures, to the objects themselves. If we skip a part of the process, we might
The powers that are in control of masses of people can also easily control the information that people receive, like the shadows on the wall. People who can’t act freely to ask questions and learn on any subject they choose are not free gain knowledge, they can only have beliefs in what they are allowed to see. So we see how easily our senses form our beliefs when we are not free to develop and learn as we choose. On the alternate hand, we cannot force people to the truth. Someone who has been misled or misinformed cannot be shown the truth and expected to take it whole heartedly and without questions or fears or doubts. We can’t drag people to the truth and shake pointed fingers at them demanding acceptance. The knowledge we need, we need to want and be ready to receive. We need to be autonomous. Like Plato wrote, “And if he were forced to look at the firelight itself, would not his eyes ache, so that he would try to turn back to the things which he could see distinctly, convinced that they were clearer that these other objects now being shown to him?” (Plato) Forced adherence to a belief isn’t knowledge, it is compliance. America is a great place because of our right to free speech. We can look up topics on any subject that is legal and not be punishable by our government. This easy accessibility a breeding ground for media rhetoric that is false and detrimental to society as a whole. Learning is about finding the truth, it is part of a journey and cannot be handed to you. Knowledge almost has to be earned. Plato describes an accurate process of gaining knowledge when he writes, “At first, it would be easiest to make out shadows, and then the images of men and things reflected in water, and later on the things themselves.” (Plato) We learn by going from ideas, to books, to pictures, to the objects themselves. If we skip a part of the process, we might