After all, Socrates tells Glaucon that if the prisoner who sees the sunlight were to venture back in the cave and break the news that the shadows on the wall were illusions, he would be killed. However, it is possible to enjoy the pleasures of the body without causing harm to the self or to others. The key is to acknowledge truth and wisdom. Morgareidge suggests that collectivism can help with the mutual liberation that should ideally take place inside the cave. The prisoners can help each other to see the truth, represented by the sun in Plato's allegory, and then inspire each other to act ethically. "The walls of the cave and dungeons, whose solid appearance we now discover to have been produced by our own alienated labor, crumble, allowing us to perceive the light -- beauty and the good -- in a world of objects and activities designed by free human beings for the enjoyment of the most fully developed human capacities." The alternative ethic suggested by the cave allegory is one that values truth above all appearances. Furthermore, it is imperative that each person help fellow human beings to become liberated. It is an ethical obligation for an individual to help remove the chains of ignorance by always acting ethically and always speaking the truth. Then, it is important to lead each person away from the darkness and towards the light. Once each prisoner has been liberated, they can choose whether or not to wander outside the cave and abandon the shelter entirely or to go inside the cave for entertainment or for shelter. After all, the comforts of the...
A cave does offer shelter from the elements and is not a negative place in itself. However, being prisoner anywhere is an undesirable state. It is crucial to become self-aware and liberated. This requires the brutal reality that materialism cannot bring happiness. Once the individual embraces the truth that there is more to life than wealth, then he or she can go about treating others with kindness rather than as means to an end. When the person has been liberated by seeing the light, that person is free to build an ethic based on truth and not illusion.
He will be a servant to other servants. Without humility, however, the "servant" will become vain and proud; his vision of truth will likely become distorted by hubris. He will be no good to himself or to others. He will fight with other warrior-kings but for power and influence rather than for truth, beauty and goodness. Humility, in a sense, will keep him honest and in the light (even
Plato's Cave And Political Speech Plato's allegory of the cave is applicable to many situations and events and has been used to comment on the political state of unions throughout the history of time. The most recent and tragic event of the assassination attempt of Gabrielle Giffords, amongst others, brought to light the ignorance of controversial politician Sara Palin. In articles by Mort Rosenblum and Cathy Lynn Grossman following the shooting
Similarly, the analogy can be made with anyone who continues to live an unhealthy lifestyle or pursue bad relationships. The image of the light is a strong one in Plato's cave story. Light symbolizes knowledge, power, and information. Light symbolizes the truth. The word "enlightenment" refers to the person who sees the light, who sees the truth. Discovering the source of light proves that the shadows are merely illusions --
In essence this means that humanity lives in a state of illusion that has been technologically constructed by an intelligence that provides people with an illusionary reality. In the film it appears that humanity is being kept in a state of illusion in order to be used as an energy source. We can relate the scenario in the Matrix to the cave allegory in that the entire world has become
Just as their problems are caused by humans, their problems can also be solved by humans. This fact is exemplified by the existence of politics, where people learn to befriend and utilize people who would otherwise do them harm. Skill at politics, as Shorris noted, is what distinguished the rich from the poor: "Rich people know…how to negotiate instead of using force. They know how to use politics to get
Plato Cave The Sociological Implications of Plato's Allegory of the Cave Social enlightenment is an abstract concept indeed, and one that is tied closely to collective ways of understanding and perceiving complex cultural dimensions such are hierarchies, forms of governance and variances of individual economic burden. However, our understanding of this abstract concept may be enhanced by Plato's well-known "Allegory of the Cave." Comprising Chapter VII of Plato's critically important The Republic,
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