Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

In society today as you grow up you are taught what to do, how to act, and what you should believe in. Most people don't question how they are brought up and why things are the way they are, but Plato, a great philosopher, finds a flaw in living this way. Plato challenged people to look beyond just doing things because it is what everyone else does, he pushes to burst their bubble and presented an allegory that still today makes people question how they are living. Plato makes a very strong argument when explaining the forms of being and I believe these states of being are still relevant today. People tend to take things at face value and follow what they have been told; once they are able to leave the cave they can see images in a new light. …show more content…
In Plato's allegory of the cave, we find ourselves in the first stage of being. In the story, there are prisoners who have been trapped in a cave since birth and chained up so they may only face the wall. On this wall, they are presented with shadows, to which they believe are real objects because this is all they have ever known. They are able to hear echo's as the shadows passed by and later put names to the shadows they see. This brings us to our first stage of being, imagination. Plato's says these prisoners are normal people. The people that are in the cave are unaware of what else is out there. As we grow older in life we are usually told what to believe in, how to act, and how to live our lives. Plato says if we live this way and don't question how and why we believe these things to be true, we are just like the prisoners chained up looking at the wall watching shadows. This is so relevant in today's world. People want to just live an easy and ordinary life, they don't want to question things in fear of the unknown. People who are stuck in the first stage of being are known as ignorant according to Plato and uneducated. All they seek to know or find is right in front of them. Some people never past this stage, but for people who …show more content…
This is not an easy process for the prisoner because they have been in the dark their whole life. They are unable to adjust to the sunlight easily and some simply decided to go back into the darkness because it is too difficult. When out of the cave the prisoner understands knowledge, that the objects he sees have dimension. They have a mathematical form to them. The sun is helping him to understand how shadows and reflections are created and slowly understanding the forms, which hold all knowing. When people in our society take a step back and question why they are thinking the way they are, they are usually shut down. People are closed-minded and want to believe what they believe in and nothing else. When the prisoner reaches the last stage of being they have gained full understanding which is the last stage of being. They are able to look directly into the sun, which Plato connects to all knowing of the forms. At this level, they are able to understand what it really means to live and understand the forms. They have now gained reason and can understand the forms, which are unchanging objects that are real things. Once the prisoner comes to this realization he wants to go back and teach his fellow prisoners what he was learned and tell them that there is so much more to the life than just looking at shadows, but when he went back into the cave he did not