Allegory_of_Plato

Allegory of Plato’s The Cave Plato’s theory of The Forms was a theory presented by the philosopher that was meant to solve the Ethical problem, and the problem of Permanence and Change. The Ethical states the question of how humans live a fulfilling life in an ever changing world, despite the fact that everything they use to represent their individualism are things that do not stay at a constant. The problem of Permanence states the question of how the world of which we pursue through our five senses is always changing. The world perceived in our minds, only seems permanent and unchanging. Plato’s solution is to divide these two theories into two separate realms of thought; The Material Realm and The Transcendent Realm of the Forms. The idea behind the Realm of Forms is simple. All objects, living or breathing, share a form. Most definitions of a Form define it as a shape. In the comparison of two objects such as elephants, this reigns true. Gender is of no concern, nor physical or mental capacity. The Form that they share is their size, which is Large. This is the form of The Large. Plato also states that these two realms, or dimensions, have two parts. The Physical is comprised of the five senses and The Extra-Dimensional state of mind that is made up of Eternal Perfect Forms and Ideas. We are unable to see into this realm, as it is not physically based. It is a realm of ideas, therefore placing it somewhere in the subconscious, where the forms and ideas are brought into existence. This makes logical sense to me, as it is not yet proven or theorized that there is a metaphysical “cloud” that exists outside of the physical realm that we draw ideas from. That theory may never be proven unless we create a way to travel back and forth from the physical to the non-physical without negative repercussions. In Plato’s The Cave, Plato reasons that everything in the perceived physical world is a pale comparison of what it actually is. A reflection, per se; In the Cave, prisoners are chained down and faced forward. They can only see the wall of the cave in front of them, and what they perceive through the five senses. These prisoners are blind to the world around them with the metaphorical wool pulled over their eyes. They cannot see behind them and are therefore more or less content with their complacency. Behind these prisoners is a wall, which I think represents the obstacle to the exit of The Cave, which is also the path to Enlightenment. Conductors line the wall in behind the prisoners. They cast shadows onto the wall in front of the prisoners, effectively making them only see what the puppeteers want them to see. I think this is an important metaphor and also the main point of The Allegory of The Cave. The Cave shows, at birth, we perceive things that we believe to be real, but turn out to be false because we all have differing points of view when perceiving reality in our hearts and minds. I chose the Allegory of The Cave because I feel that this is still very applicable to the present day. The puppeteers are media conglomerates, government, shadow groups, or clandestine organizations. The prisoners are us, or at least those who chose not to see the true light. A prisoner could also be anything from a reporter having his strings pulled to report an important or unimportant story. It could even be something as large as a country, such as North Korea, where the population revered its leader despite the fact that he was one of the most watched foreign leaders as a possible threat to the safety of the rest of the world. The Wall as mentioned before is a representation of what I believe to be the obstacle that is in the way of the path to exit The Cave. This path is also the Path of Knowledge represented by a light or flame. It makes sense to be this way, because as one progresses through life, he/she will encounter these walls/obstacles that are there to test their determination to walk the path of enlightenment and receive true knowledge, not what is told to us.