Explain the Analogy of the Cave in Platos Republic

by samiaahmed (student)

AS and A Level Religious Studies & Philosophy

RS PHILOSOPHY
PLATO’S CAVE

3 a) Explain the Analogy of the Cave in Plato’s Republic

An analogy is when a parallel between two things, on which a comparison may be established is put in a simple story that has metaphorical meaning. Plato explains his analogy of the cave to help describe his philosophical theory on the key difference amongst the physical appearance of the world and the reality behind this appearance, the World of Forms. In his opinion his analogy could evidently clarify to others why the physical world was just an illusion; that true reality must be start in the everlasting fixed World of Forms.

Plato’s analogy starts with a cave. The cave represents the visibly physical world. It also represents the human body imprisoning the soul from true knowledge. Plato believes that the soul has been caught in the body and that the only escape is to become like the philosopher and discover true reality. He believes that the soul exists in the World of Forms and has always done so. This is why he places such an emphasis on reason. The mind is important; through the mind we can reason back to our souls to remember the nature of things.

A group of prisoners are chained by their necks and legs so that they cannot turn around and have been like this since birth and know no other life than this. Behind the prisoners are a wall and a fire that burns. Occasionally individuals carry objects, like marionettes, in front of the fire and shadows are shown against the wall in front of the prisoners. Observing the shadows that appear before them, the prisoners develop a game over time, they try to predict the movements of the shadows and associate the sounds made by the individuals with the shadows as this is all they know. The prisoners think this is all true reality.

The prisoners represent ordinary people yet to discover true knowledge. They have been deceived into believing that the shadows, in the shadow play, they see are real and the sounds the people make are being made by the shadows. Plato claims that the shadows and games played is the same as the five senses misleading the individual. He believes that the things we see in the visible world are reflections or illusions of the true ‘form’ of that object in the World of Forms. This is also shown through the chains as they reflect how our senses are the cause to force us to accept what we see and hear around us. Furthermore those in the analogy that carry the puppets and statues signify the Athenian government that desired to uphold the status quo and rejected freedom of thought and intelligent teachings, other than the ones they accepted, as it presented a threat to the higher ranks in society that servants could rise against them and revolt.

The shadow play symbolizes the deception created by our senses. Just as the shadows appeared real to the prisoners, showing order and structure, so the sights and sounds that we experience seem genuine. However, they are both are mistaken, because the senses cannot contemplate reality. Plato highlights the untruth of the illusion by portraying shadows of artificial objects cast by the firelight; nothing could be more removed from the truth.

In the analogy a prisoner is set free. At first he stands with some pain and became stunned and confused by the bright light from the fire. He struggles ...

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In the analogy a prisoner is set free. At first he stands with some pain and became stunned and confused by the bright light from the fire. He struggles to adjust to his new enlightenment of the sight of the environment he had always known. The prisoner quickly understands that the shadows he saw on the walls were not the real objects themselves. The journey out of the cave by the prisoner is the journey of the new philosopher to true discovery of knowledge. As like the released prisoner, the new philosopher struggles to take in his new understanding of reality

Outside the prisoner would carry on struggling to comprehend the new world that was surrounding him. At first the prisoner would only focuses on the shadows that objects cast in the sun. Slowly he would be able to see things as they actually are, in complete shape and colour. This part of the analogy is highly significant as the outside world represents the World of Forms. It is the sun that provides the true shape and colour in the analogy and so the sun represents the Form of the Good. Plato is stating that the Form of the Good gives all of the other Forms their existence. This is the aim of every philosopher; to gain clear knowledge of the Form of the Good and recognize that the physical world, the cave, is not genuine reality. Another representation of the sun is the fire in the cave, as a superficial sun and is a copy of the Form of the Good.

When the prisoner is enlightened he returns to the cave to tell the others of his new discoveries. The prisoner tries to tell the others in the cave that there is a whole other world outside the cave, but they laugh at him. This represents how when the philosopher returns to the cave with true knowledge it is difficult to explain to others who have not reached this enlightenment of reality. It is harder to accept as a group because only one of them has experienced this, so this is intimidating for the one prisoner to protest against the life inside the cave that the other prisoners have only ever known as the appearance of the world and life itself.

In conclusion Plato uses his analogy of the cave to validate his belief in the World of Forms. Each part of the analogy emphasises the detailed contrasts between the empirical and rational; physical and spiritual. Plato believes that true knowledge can only be discovered in the World of Forms. This concludes that any knowledge that comes through the five senses cannot be true as the visibly physical world is in a process of constant change. Through developing the skill of reason then can the philosopher hope to appreciate genuine truth of reality.

b) “The Analogy of the Cave tells us nothing about reality.” Discuss.

Plato came up with his analogy of the cave to explain his philosophy about reality and this allowed people to comprehend a world further on than the one we can see in front of us. It was a theoretical situation, were prisoners were tied up and could only see what was in front of them, which was a shadow play due to a fire behind them causing objects to reflect shadows which the prisoners assumed were real. This helps parallel Plato’s idea for ordinary people who can’t see past the visible world, an illusion, and that genuine reality originates beyond the physical world, the World of Forms.

Those who agree with this statement say that we cannot demonstrate that the spiritual world as there is no genuine evidence to support this, Plato uses reason alone to arrive to his conclusion, and how does he know this is true? As well as this, it is argued that Plato’s analogy is too far-fetched and unrealistic, as it would never have been possible for the prisoners to have been chained from birth and know nothing but a shadow play; this shows a weakness in his argument and proves that his allegory may not even relate to reality. In addition to this how can Plato be so sure of reality himself? What even is reality? Also the links between forms and this world is unclear and it rejects using our senses at all, but we rely on senses to discover and make judgements.

Although Plato believed the real world was a world of ideas and eternal perfect forms, his story is still pertinent to our own experience. Most of us assume that the sights and sounds we perceive are the "real world". When science inform us that we are not seeing reality as it is, but merely the images that manifests in our minds, we shrug in disbelief. How can that be? How can the world that I experience so clearly as "out there", be just an image in the mind? – Peter Russell

People who believe that we can learn from the analogy of the cave about reality state that it coincides with religion and spiritual references, as it symbolises a presence of greater being from which all originates from and that is reality. Also the people who agree with this statement would argue that Plato’s allegory makes complex ideas easier to comprehend and does tell us about reality by telling us in a way that we can understand and that fits in with the way we understand things by putting ourselves in the prisoner’s situation. Furthermore the argument that Plato uses reason only to come to his conclusion makes his analogy of the cave valid, as our senses mislead us.

There is also the dispute that there is no evidence to support or prove that, Plato’s analogy of the cave does or does not tell nothing about reality. However Plato would refute evidence is necessary at all, as it is based on using our senses in the first place, making this empirical.

I do not completely agree with this statement, as I believe we are enlightened by the prospect of a further world than the physical world we call reality, therefore I disregard that Plato’s analogy tells us nothing. However aspects of the analogy are too unrealistic to say it reveals true knowledge about reality, for example the prisoners being chained from birth and refusing the uses of our senses to make judgements about our environment. In my opinion Plato’s analogy of the cave widens our perspective about reality and whether visible surroundings are illusions or not, but it does not determine exactly what reality really is and whether we are living in a false pretence.