Plato’s Allegory of the cave accounts for his theory of knowledge by showing how leaving ignorance turns perception into true belief. Plato’s theory of knowledge explains that perceptions of things are like the shadows on the cave wall and while the prisoners know a name for the thing, what they see is not true belief. The prisoners however know the names of the perceived things and while their reality is a façade, their soul knows of forms. I will explain how the darkness is ignorance, shadows are perception in the material world, how the prisoners had knowledge to begin with, and how they account for Plato’s epistemology. The darkness of the cave was Ignorance in physical form, this lead the prisoners to believe that the shadows were real
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This is shown in the Meno where Meno’s slave boy was shown to have the knowledge to solve geometrical problems and simply needed guidance through dialectic to answer correctly. The Allegory of the Cave shows that the prisoners have knowledge of what objects are from being able to name shadows. However, this knowledge is a perception that is tied to the material world and is supported by false belief and therefore is simply ignorance supported by the knowledge they always had. When the person is ‘dragged into the light of the sun’4 and becomes accustomed to the light they see the true forms, and then the from of The Good. When they see the true forms they already have names attached to them that are gained from the cave. This shows that knowledge of the forms is present in everyone from the start and even if it is shrouded in ignorance it still …show more content…
The Allegory of the Cave likens dialectical to a forced freedom from the cave into the glare of the sun or The Good which it represents. The darkness from which the prisoners came from was shown to be ignorance materialized. The material world is the cave with all its false models and imitations of forms being puppeteered with the glare of the material sun (the fire) to produce shadows which we believe to be the real objects. This is incorrect, and we eventually reach through forced dialectical the intelligible world which holds the true forms and the form of The Good. The prisoner had knowledge prior to reaching the intelligible world however and he understood names of objects which shows he knew of them to begin with but referred to them with ignorance. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave accounts for his theory of knowledge very well and throughout the rest of Republic VII discusses how people may be taught to open their sight to it. I believe Plato managed very few contradictions within his allegory and correctly used Socrates to prove his points to
This is shown in the Meno where Meno’s slave boy was shown to have the knowledge to solve geometrical problems and simply needed guidance through dialectic to answer correctly. The Allegory of the Cave shows that the prisoners have knowledge of what objects are from being able to name shadows. However, this knowledge is a perception that is tied to the material world and is supported by false belief and therefore is simply ignorance supported by the knowledge they always had. When the person is ‘dragged into the light of the sun’4 and becomes accustomed to the light they see the true forms, and then the from of The Good. When they see the true forms they already have names attached to them that are gained from the cave. This shows that knowledge of the forms is present in everyone from the start and even if it is shrouded in ignorance it still …show more content…
The Allegory of the Cave likens dialectical to a forced freedom from the cave into the glare of the sun or The Good which it represents. The darkness from which the prisoners came from was shown to be ignorance materialized. The material world is the cave with all its false models and imitations of forms being puppeteered with the glare of the material sun (the fire) to produce shadows which we believe to be the real objects. This is incorrect, and we eventually reach through forced dialectical the intelligible world which holds the true forms and the form of The Good. The prisoner had knowledge prior to reaching the intelligible world however and he understood names of objects which shows he knew of them to begin with but referred to them with ignorance. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave accounts for his theory of knowledge very well and throughout the rest of Republic VII discusses how people may be taught to open their sight to it. I believe Plato managed very few contradictions within his allegory and correctly used Socrates to prove his points to