However the analogy of the cave can also be seen as the stages of life. We must proceed through the lower stages of life in order to reach the higher stages.. Everyone begins at the cognitive level of imagination. We each begin our lives deep within in the cave, with our head and legs bound, and education is the struggle to move us far out of the cave as possible. However not everyone can make it all the way out, this is what makes everyone different, different out looks on life, different amounts of knowledge, its what separates us all from the rest.
The analogy of the cave teaches us that truth can only be found from one person. If one compares the majority of us in the world to the people sitting chained down in the cave, then like them we remain in the dark and do not really understand the truth, but what we do understand is the shadows of truths. It is very easy for a person to assume that after going through years and years of education that what we were being taught was the whole truth, but nobody questions this, and assumes that it might just only be shadows of the truth. It is implied that there is only one person you can trust to help you discover the truth, and that person is no one other than yourself. Only once a person decides to question things rather than just accept them is when he is able to leave the ‘cave’ and discover the real truth. The analogy overall teaches us that truth is never something put in front of us to see, but is something we must discover ourselves through life and asking questions, not everyone discovers the same truths as others, and some people are happy believing in the truths of shadows and nothing more.
The analogy connects to religion in many ways. Peoples religion is usually determined by what their parents believe in, and any other religion is simply believed to be untrue. This connects to the analogy of the cave, as the people in the cave can be seen as a family (they have their own religion). When the man re-enters the cave having been shown the truth about ‘another religion’, he is immediately dismissed and everything he says is thought to be untrue. This to me shows that the analogy is there to teach us that our religion is hugely based on what we have been shown by our family and older generations, and not by what we truly believe in. In addition the analogy also illustrates how people follow those who are thought to have greater knowledge, this in connection to the one man in the cave that is able to predict what shadows will show up next (the most knowledgeable one). This can be linked to people such as Rabbis and Priests, it is them that we turn to when we need advise in connection to G-d, as it is them who are seen to have the most knowledge. Lastly the analogy also in some ways suggests there is a G-d
It teaches us that although there are things we are unable to see, it does not mean that they do not exist. The analogy suggests that the people inside the cave only see the shadows it is all they know, however we know that there are people outside of the cave observing what they see and hear, essentially observing their lives. These people outside of the cave could also be seen as G-d although the people inside the cave cannot see or hear them, they are still there observing their lives, just like G-d. Therefore in some ways the analogy teaches us to believe in G-d. Overall the analogy teaches us that religion is only something based on things we see and what we are taught by the people around us, and by the people who we see to have greater knowledge of our religion than us. However we must not always only believe in what we see, but also trust in what we cannot, G-d.
In my opinion the analogy of the cave teaches us that people from different cultures and/or religion,or even just families have different views on what is good and what is bad. The cave and the people in it could be seen as a culture for example, when somebody leaves that culture to enter another, i.e. leaves the cave; then everything they experience outside the cave will be different and some things may even be considered bad. For example there is a culture that after a person dies it is customary to eat the body, to us this would be seen as wrong but to them burning a loved one after death would be seen as disrespectful. In the analogy Plato teaches us that there is a difference between good and bad for us, and good and bad for somebody else. This then presents the question, is there ever bad or good? If somebodies good is another persons bad and another persons bad is another persons good, then this shows that anything is purely down to opinion. Overall the analogy of the cave teaches us that there is no difference between good and bad, and that it is just down to interpretation.
by
lanasami (student)
