False Advertising and Plato Essay

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Allegory of the Cave

The beginning of Plato's book VII of the "The Republic" (514a -- 520a) is a written dialogue between Glaucon, Plato's brother, and his mentor, Socrates - The Allegory of the Cave. Plato's 'Allegory of the Cave' presents a world whereby prisoners lived chained to the wall of the cave. The people carrying puppets or objects, the puppeteers, create shadows of the objects on the wall, and for the prisoners, these shadows are real. The shadows create reality for them. Plato then supposes that if one prisoner was set free and departed from the cave, he will find it difficult to see because of the sun and will be anxious about what he sees around him. The prisoner's version of reality had always been the shadows on the wall. According to Aquileana (2016), after acquainting himself to his new world, he subsequently recognizes that his entire presence has been contained and manipulated by others and the truth is now apparent to him.

The Prisoners in the Cave

Rader describes that the prisoners in the 'Allegory of the Cave' are not able to see the objects or "puppets," the real objects that were being carried behind them. The discussion echoes off the wall, and shadows created by puppeteers, the objects not seen by the prisoners, are what prisoners hear and see. Prisoners, as such, mistake the presence for reality.

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Since the prisoners have not seen the carried objects before, they accept the shadows of the puppets as the true and real objects.

Plato proposes that prisoners would later on embark on a guessing "game" to determine the shadow that will come next. If one of the prisoners was to guess the next appearing shadow correctly, the other prisoners would honor him as the cleverest among them. Suppose one of them escapes and leaves the cave, he would be shocked by the world he sees outside, not to believe it is real. As the prisoner becomes accustomed to his new world, he recognizes that his prior perception of reality was incorrect. He then begins to comprehend and appreciate this real world. At first, he was only seeing shadows of artificial things. Then, he is able to see reflections of objects and people on the water, and later objects and people themselves. After a while, he is able to see the moon and stars at night and then the sun itself. Lastly, he is able to look at the sun, the main spring of knowledge. When a returning prisoner goes back to the cave, his former dwelling, and tells the other prisoners what he saw, they do not believe him. According to Rader (2016), they would kill him if he attempted to drag them out.

The Allegory of the….....

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