Blog 2

“The Allegory and the Cave” is a fictional story written by Plato. It’s an allegory. An allegory is a representation of something that is complex with something physical. In the story Plato writes about a group of people chained in a cave. They are unable to see anything but a wall in front of them. On the wall are shadows created by a fire and objects such as people and animals passing it. The prisoners naturally mistake all the things they see as reality. The prisoners know of nothing else. When they see a shadow they automatically assume its the literal object, instead of understanding that the shadow is just that a mere shadow. The names of forms are real objects to the bond people in the cave.
Plato shows through “The Allegory and the Cave” that we rely on forms heavily for our reality. Socrates, Plato’s instructor, is the person telling the story about the prisoners in the story. He suggest that if the a prisoner was let free he would first reject that the sun holds all the responsibility for the shadows. He would be shown that the shadows are not the literal objects. The newly freed prisoner would reject this new found knowledge because it is not comprehensive to him. Socrates later also says eventually the prisoner would understand if forced to see actuality. Socrates proposes as well if the prisoner would to share his discovers with the others in the cave they would immediately discard his “ideas”. They would think he was tainted and would even try to slay him if he tried to let them go. Plato tells through the story that mankind makes his own reality through forms and some can discover the true nature of things. However ,even if the true nature of things is discovered it may be mistaken for something false and the cycle continues.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave

http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm