Vicky Mouyat

Student ID: 16536917 

Minor Essay:

Question 1

 

Plato's parable of the cave serves as an allegory for ignorance and lack of knowledge (Cohen, 2006), as well as changing perceptions of 'reality' and what one believes to be 'real' (Scruton, 1995). The parable describes prisoners who have been chained down in this cave, depicted as being ignorant and having a limited understanding of the world beyond this environment in which they are being held captive (Cohen, 2006). The prisoners have been positioned to face a wall, unable to turn their heads (Plato, 1901), and as the result of a fire burning behind them, they are only able to observe the flickering shadows of puppets being played behind them on the wall before them (Scruton, 1995).

As a result, the prisoners assume that the shadows on the wall they are facing to be 'real' (Cohen, 2006), when, in actuality, they are completely oblivious to the fact that these shadows have come about as a result of the puppets being played behind them (Scruton, 1995). Similarly, the civilians on Earth in the movie The Matrix fail to see that they too are living in a type of constructed reality, whereby, much like the prisoners in the parable, they too are prisoners of this reality – failing to recognise that what is before them is not essentially the 'real' (Miller, 2002).

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If one of these prisoners in the parable were to be released, and compelled to turn his head and walk toward the light which had previously been behind him (Plato, 1901), he would undoubtedly suffer pain as a result of sensitive eyes meeting the glare (Plato, 1901), and be in a somewhat bewildered state (Scruton, 1995). That prisoner may prefer to be chained and facing the wall once more, as the pain that comes with this new found sight may be too much to bear (Scruton, 1995). This was very much the case for Cypher, a member of Morpheus' ...

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