Explain Platos teaching about reality in his analogy of the cave. (25 marks)

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Explain Plato’s teaching about reality in his analogy of the cave.

Plato (c.427 BCE- c.347 BCE), was a famous philosopher and student of socrates. He created philosophical theories which are still discussed today, theories such as the theory of the forms are still debated in modern times by many people including current leading philosophers. Plato was also an absolutist therefore believed that principles would always be true no matter what. Plato’s ideas ranged from existence of the soul and the nature of beauty to who should run for government.

The Analogy of the Cave is one of three similes used by plato to illustrate his theory of the forms - Plato believed that behind every object or concept in our world (the realm of appearances) there is an ideal form of it, in an unseen reality called the realm of the forms. The forms for these concepts or objects could be could be explained as ideal designs for certain examples of the concepts on earth, Plato calls these particulars. The analogy is allegorical therefore different parts of the story are symbolic to situations we as people can face.

The analogy of the cave:

There are prisoners who have been chained to a wall underground since they were born, they have never seen outside the cave and could only gave the wall. This wall showed shadows cast from the fire behind them, this was the only realty they knew and had experienced. One day a prisoner is dragged out of the cave and set free. At first he was blinded by the light from the sun however once his eyes had adjusted he was amazed by the reality that he had been kept from while in the cave including the new reality of people, animals and objects castings shadows in to the cave. The prisoner felt it was his duty to tell the other prisoners of his experience outside the cave. However when he went back to cave, the prisoners didn’t believe his story of the world outside the cave. For them the the shadows were the only reality they had known and to them it was all that could ever exist.

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 The analogy is allegorical therefore different parts of the story are symbolic to situations we as people can face.

The cave represents the visible world we live in, the realm of appearances, however Plato seems to suggest that the prisoners represent ordinary people (such as us) who have not yet experienced true knowledge. Therefore have only discovered the false reality in the cave, including the shadows being cast on the wall. These shadows represent the illusions we see every day, they are the imperfect interpretations of the ideal form. To the prisoners they are real they exhibit structure so ...

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