The Allegory Of The Cave In Plato's The Republic

The allegory of the cave is among one of the most famous metaphors used in history and it was written by Plato in The Republic. The allegory of the cave has remained insightful even in the modern era because it aims to explains how ones personal knowledge can grow and how it also can be reflected onto the city (society). Plato's objective was to describe the different tiers of thinking within a person and how knowledge can change with a higher perspective as when compared to the forms, or the highest truths. The allegory goes further than just an individual's level of thought because it is also used to describe the different ways people think and act within a society. Plato holds that only someone who has true knowledge of the forms will …show more content…
The story begins with human life being imprisoned in a cave where they are bound sitting upright facing a wall with shadows dancing on them. Behind the prisoners is a wall where there are statues of people, animals, and trees and behind those are flames in which allow the prisoners to only see shadows. Plato argues that this is imagination and the lowest tier of human thinking. It is imagination because the shadows are reflections of an image and do not represent the truest form of the image they are trying to replicate. He says that many people will be stuck at this lowest level of thinking because lack of perspective, or what we would commonly think of as an education. He is also slightly suggesting that the average person will always be shackled to their emotions and remain in ignorance. Plato says this is also the lowest form of human existence because you are stuck in ignorance and do not have any real understanding of the forms. Even if one of the prisoners was able to deduct for example, a tree as one of the shadows they don't have true knowledge about the matter because they don't know how it relates to the forms. An example Plato makes of this is that if a wicked man were to come back into the cave he would be able to manipulate the shadows and give the prisoners a false reality. It also is referring to how people who live in their imagination can …show more content…
The sun represents the highest form of truth because the shadows, statues, and physical forms are not possible without the sun. This stage represents true understanding because once the people are able to realize that the sun is like an absolute truth they will finally be able to realize that wisdom is holistic. The forms represent unchanging universal truths, much like mathematic equations and numbers themselves. Plato explains that this is the highest level of reality because the forms give the ability to hold utilize knowledge; in this stage of thought you are able to pull from the abstract and compare how it could exist in reality. Plato also argues that the guardians of the city must be able to understand at the highest level because only then will they be able to make rational choices. After realizing that the sun is the highest level of thinking the now free prisoners would want to go back into the cave to enlighten the other prisoners of the cave. The story continues that they go back down telling the prisoners that their whole life is a lie and that they now know the real truth. They unbind the prisoners from the wall and carry them to the outside world where they are blinded and confused by the sun. The extreme change from cave living to moving to the outside world would infuriate