Plato's Cave Analogy in Book 7 Of Term Paper

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Plato's Cave Analogy

In Book 7 of the Republic, Plato attempted to characterize a philosopher king and to describe the kind knowledge that is necessary for a philosopher king. He defines a philosopher as a lover of knowledge. And this knowledge must be of things as they are and not simply of belief. The Analogy of the Cave is used to compare the effect and the lack of knowledge or education on human nature as well as the responsibility that accompanies it.

Plato describes the cave as an underground dwelling with an entrance up at a distance. The men that live there are chained and can only see in front of them. (They represent the uneducated). There is a fire that provides them light, but it is above and behind them. Between the light and them is a path that has a low wall alongside it. Men carry all sorts of things along the wall. But the chained men only see the shadows that are cast by the fire and believe the shadows to be the real objects. (This is the world of shadows). If one of them is released and turns around, he can see the artifacts that cast the shadows and might believe that they were the real things. (He is in the world of belief).

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When the freed man goes up the path toward the distant sunlight, he realizes that it is the sun, which provides the real light and the seasons.

The world of the ignorant is similar to the cave dwelling.

The condition of the people in the world of shadows is pitiful to the person who has ascended and has true knowledge. The cave prisoners have no freedom. They are kept in the darkness of ignorance. They have no future. But they don't know any better. They cannot see themselves or anyone else. They make elaborate stories of the shadows they see but do not have true knowledge. In the modern world, it is similar. The ignorant live in a state that makes them oblivious of their condition and are possibly unable to rise out of it.

But even if they were able to rise out of their condition, often they are afraid and stay with what they know. They would rather remain in their familiar misery and listen to those that make their world seem exactly as they have always seen it. They have no vision and do not know the truth.

They would be hostile to those that would try to make them see their misery. Those that escape that misery through education, though they pity the ignorant,….....

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