Higher Reality In Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave he argues that there exists a different, immaterial, and intelligible reality. He places this reality above ours and says that we must escape our shackles, like the people in the cave, and find that better reality. Apart from this, he also declares that it is not enough to find the new reality, those who reach it must go back and liberate the other shackled prisoners. This whole process of finding more knowledge is not easy or enjoyable at first. Plato represents the displeasure felt as the fire that people must go over, and the sun blinding them for the first time. The only way to reach the higher knowledge is to force yourself through the uncomfortable obstacles. So did Plato ever find this higher reality? …show more content…
Or is he just making claims about what he thinks or wants? I have been struggling with the thought of people having souls, spirits, or minds. I am not sure whether our bodies and minds are one or two separate things. Also if one will survive the death of the other. I try to apply these to Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in the way that our bodies are the shackles that are holding us back from that higher reality. At the moment I believe there might be a higher reality since we don’t really understand or know whether we have souls or not. That thought alone of having something within me that I can’t really understand makes be believe that there is that higher reality that Plato claims. So our bodies are the shackles that only allow us to see the imperfect copies of the higher reality. So then we must ignore our bodies’ wants in order to reach the higher reality. It will be hard to go against what the body wants. We will feel pain that can be both physical and mental. Those are the obstacles that we must face like the people in the cave. I’m not sure whether death will release us into the higher reality. Or if there are specific requirements to be allowed into the higher reality. Do we have to become as knowledge as we can here on earth in …show more content…
Over time he does adjust to this new reality but struggles. By gaining as much knowledge as you can in this reality, will it be somewhat easier to adjust to the new reality? Either way the man became acclimated with his new environment. Is Plato telling us that if we don’t become or reach a higher level of education we will never be able to adjust to the new reality? Will we go crazy in that new reality? Also what if the people who are considered crazy here are earth come from a lesser reality and weren’t able to adjust? Will they be able to go to the next higher reality? To me it seems as if there can be an infinite amount of higher realities, yet Plato puts a limit. He calls the highest reality the forms. Why did he stop there? If he couldn’t think of a higher reality than that here in our current reality, he should’ve left it as a “to be continued” kind of thing since he might will be able to find a higher one when he’s in the higher