Throughout life, one will encounter many different people some with similar views and others with contrasting perspectives on reality. This topic and discussion on life and reality continues to rise debate since ancient times. Some of history’s most influential philosophers that attempt to describe life and reality are Aristotle and Plato. A student may choose […]
Platonism is the philosophy of Plato that was developed in 1509; and moreover refers to the philosophy the affirms the existence of abstract objects that “exist” in a “third realm” distinct form the external world and from the internal world of the consciousness. And also bringing attention to Plato’s Theory of Forms that considers the […]
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Get startedPlato, the founder of many philosophical ideas, founded the concept of Platonic dualism- formulated on his theory of the forms. Plato believed of another world separate from the flawed physical world we live in and know through our senses, a world of ideas. In this world existed the Forms: immaterial substances that distort our perception […]
Plato and Aristotle are without a doubt two of the world’s greatest philosophers. Plato, a Greek philosopher and a student of Socrates, was born around 424-423 BC in Athens to a wealthy Athenian family and his death was around 347-348 BC. Following in the footsteps of Socrates, Plato wrote his works as dialogues. His notable […]
Plato describes that the ‘good life’ consists of knowing the Form of Good. According to Plato, the material world, as it seems to us, is not the real world but it is only a shadow or an imitation of the real world. In his theory of forms, Plato makes a distinction between objects that are […]
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave presents an extended metaphor drawing upon philosophical issues such as epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, enlightenment, education, religion, and politics. As we journey through Plato’s story we come to understand the representations behind it. The basic premise here is showing us the relation between education and truth. True knowledge is hidden and […]
Have you ever wondered how someone depicts the truth from a lie? Or maybe even wondered how do we know what we know? Two philosophers, Plato and Aristotle, sought out to help us understand the why we do what we do and how do we know what we know. Both philosophers’ debate in the knowledge […]
Describe the story of Plato’s Allegory of the Cave in detail. Three prisoners chained in a cave and only the wall in front of them is visible. Behind their heads are fire and a walkway between them. They haven’t seen the world outside of the cave since they were born. One day one of the […]
The piece of art that I visited is called In Plato’s Cave, which was done by Robert Motherwell, and can be found in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In fact, the painting I saw is only one from a series of paintings all with the same name. Motherwell lived from 1915-1991 and painted In Plato’s […]
“Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” represented a vision he had that humans were shacked in chains in front of a fire that gave the illusion that the shadows of items were actually in front of them. This is where these humans lived their childhood “fixed in the same place.” (Republic, 514) The shadows that the […]
Plato was an ancient Athenian Philosopher who studied under fellow philosopher Socrates. He would later become one of the most influential philosophers of all time. One of Plato’s most notable works and most famous allegory was the “Allegory of the Cave”. Plato uses the “Allegory of the Cave” as a tool to show us, readers, […]
Philosophy is a cosmology, a crisis, and a critique. A cosmology is the assumption one makes about the universe, their worldview, what is subjective, and what is objective. A crisis is made up of the moral choices one makes, what is right or wrong, choosing between life or death, and is based judgement. Critique analyzes […]
Anet Toroosian Online English 104: Dr. Kwa Essay One Final Draft Epilogue to Plato’s Cave To start, what would your life be like if you were stuck in a world where you could not see the end? Would you be content with just being alive? This question reminds me Plato’s “the allegory of the cave”. […]
In the movie The Matrix we discover a character by the title of Neo and his battle adjusting to the truth to reality. This story is closely similar to an antiquated Greek content composed by Plato called “The Purposeful anecdote of the Cave.” Presently both stories are diverse but the thoughts are essentially the same. […]
This paper serves as an examination of the similarities and differences in the views of two philosophers, Plato and Nietzsche, relating top human nature and ethics as expressed in Plato’s The Republic and Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil. Nietzsche writes this volume as the end of his life approaches and uses it as an instrument […]
Abstract In this paper the literary works of Plato and Martin Luther will be compared. In Plato’s “Socrates’ Apology” and Martin Luther’s “Speech at the Diet of Worms” the defense of one’s beliefs is the central focus. When their beliefs are called into question, both Socrates and Martin Luther stay true to their causes and […]
“The Allegory of the Cave” is a short story from one of Plato’s books, The Republic. After discovering and learning about “The Allegory of the Cave”, it is safe to say for sure that “Allegory of the cave” is one of the most well-known works of Plato. Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” definitely has a […]
Imagine a world without the distractions in daily living, close family or friends, love, religion, and other traditional things that raises our society upon. This is the style of life that Plato thought society should act in order to function to relate more to a perfect environment. Plato portrays this idea into a story called […]
Aristotle was taught by Plato who was taught by Socrates. In a sense they all their had own specific way of thinking of human nature but they also had a way of relating to each other. Plato believed in the Theory of Forms while Aristotle believed in metaphysics and Socrates believed in the key to […]
Plato’s extended metaphor, “The Allegory of the Cave” focuses on the theme of reality and knowledge to demonstrate that reality is not a definitive concept. Plato brings attention to the people’s increasing ignorance and lack of concern. The true nature of reality is not perceived due to our lack in education. This hinderance prevents us […]
The conception of reality is a construct many philosophers have dwelled on, and many have attempted to devise doctrines and theories on the topic, in hopes of answering this dilemma and achieving a greater understanding of the universe. A philosopher named Nick Bostrom developed a theory that viewed reality and existence as a computer simulation […]
“In an effort to present a more palatable ideology to a generally disagreeable Mediterranean populace, the early apostolic fathers of the church attempted to synthesize new testament theology (Christianity), Judaism, and popular Greek philosophy of the time. Prime among the latter was Platonism, emerging from the famous Athenian academy with its eponymous founder. Despite their […]
Explain, analyze, and interpret Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” from Book VII of Republic (p.193-198; 514a-519b). Plato was an ancient Athenian Philosopher who studied under fellow philosopher Socrates. He would later become one of the most influential philosophers of all time. One of Plato’s most notable works and most famous allegory was the “Allegory of the […]
This week in class we were introduced to the topic of our first essay: determining whether an examined life is the only morally worthwhile life. The concept of an examined life was introduced by Socrates and recorded by Plato, in Apology. We were also provided with a recommended process by which to write this argumentative […]
When people are asked what life is, the response is always somewhere along the lines of “Life is what you make of it.” I can tell you that there is a lot that can be contradicted with this assumption. People can argue that it is not just about what you make of everything you do, […]
Imagine a world of shadows. Three prisoners are faced to the wall and can’t move. They have been there since birth and don’t know anything about the outside world. In Plato’s opinion, these would be the common people, the masses. Behind them is a fire, and they only see the shadows, meaning that the masses […]
Define allegory in your own words. Explain the main elements of the allegory in the excerpt from the Republic. An allegory is a story, or a parable, based on human experience meant to act as a moral guide. The allegory from Plato’s Republic is a cautionary tale that expresses how human life can be expressed as […]
Both Pericles’ Funeral Oration from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War and Plato’s Apology of Socrates describe the Athenian democracy and society, however, they are very opposite views. According to Pericles, the written as well as unwritten laws of democracy, such as the administration being in hands of many citizens who are also the judges […]
The Allegory of the Cave begins by introducing three men that are placed in a cave since childhood. The things these men experience and express have greater meanings than their literal text. The men are facing the wall of the cave and their legs and necks are chained to keep them from seeing what is […]
What is freedom and are we free? Freedom. A word redolent with benevolence. People like being “”free””. It is regularly introduced to society as an extremity: free articulation, free decision and majority rules system, versus suppression, restriction and absolutism. The idea of regular rights assumes a conspicuous job in legitimate and political talk of freedom. […]
According to David Foster’s This Is Water we revolve ourselves around certain beliefs that we think are a matter of fact. We do not even think for once that they can be questioned too. In this way our brain creates a circuit making us unaware that we are imprisoned by our beliefs.
The concern of certainty is a legitimate worry for philosophers because many things that we are certain of turns out to be totally opposite, wrong, and deceptive. When eventually it is dawned upon us that our beliefs were wrong or they can be counter questioned, our self-centered behavior gets hurt. Ultimately it produces chaos inside us. We should need to understand that change is the most powerful law of nature. And we cannot be certain about even certain things.
Worry of Plato and Descartes on the unexamined everyday world:
Plato has acknowledged with the quote that “ An unexamined life is not worth living” by Socrates during his trials. Their worry is justified because when we examine anything we try to understand it. Examined life leads you to live a transparent life. When you start examining you come to know what you are living. Socrates was the philosopher and philosophy means to question everything. If we will stop examining everything, the philosophy would simply be fallen down or completely vanished. They were worried that if the examining would be stopped, there would be no attraction to live for.
According to Descartes, if a belief has even the slightest tint of doubt, reject it. This thought is called radical skepticism where every belief is counter questioned and challenged. He concluded this experiment in a statement that physical senses cannot be relied upon as they have deceived him earlier. This phenomenon is known as sensory deception. This led him to think that every believer can be doubted that is perceived by five senses. He also explained that it is difficult to differentiate between waking life and dream states. So we cannot say that whether we are in the awake state, living in reality or asleep, living a dream. This he named as dream hypothesis. He also postulated the evil demon hypothesis. He stated that all external realities may be just an illusion framed by the evil demon trying to deceive the man. Moreover, he said that previous memories can be merely imaginations and not strong realities. These all statements and theories made him doubt the theory of the existence of anything.
Plato presented the allegory of the cave. He postulated a story. He said there are few prisoners present in the depths of a cave. The cave is all dark. The prisoners are sitting behind a wall. A fire is lit behind the prisoners which cast shadows of them on the wall. Few prisoners among them are puppeteers who make puppets on the wall from the light of the fire. They make noises while making puppets on the wall. According to their perception, truth is nothing more than shadows.
In other words, prisoners are unaware of this illusion and consider these shadows a reality. One day a prisoner unchained himself and went to move around the cave. At night he saw stars and in the day he saw light. It was then dawned upon him that the true source of light is the sun. then he realizes that his previous life in the cave was just an illusion. He depicts prisoners as people with false beliefs about reality. They gave their hold to senses which eventually manipulated the reality.
After getting to know about their experiments in detail, both of them thought that senses are illusory. Our senses can be manipulated easily and they can interfere with our perception of reality. Moreover, the evil demon hypothesis of Descartes is relevant to prisoners whose perception is distorted by puppeteers. For both of them the intellect is the only means for getting insight into true knowledge. Senses are deceptive.
I think their projects differ at one point. Descartes provides the initial point to modern sciences by just not relying on five senses whereas Plato told us about the way of life, how to spend it logically and the essence of seeking true knowledge. Moreover, Plato’s theory represented the conclusive point whereas Descartes’s theory opened the gates of further investigation.
The preferred method to think about the possibility of illusion or deception is the escape from the cave. This approach is more applicable and practical because those who acquire it can come back to the cave and teach others who are still unaware of the reality.
I would try to increase the people in logical reasoning and to break the circles of false consciousness. The darkness in the cave can be overcome by true knowledge and intellect. In this way this goal can be practical. Wisdom and knowledge come through seeking and questioning. It is enlightened on you when you move out of your cave and start observing your surroundings closely. In this cave analogy of Plato, cave and its darkness abbreviate unawareness and light and its source abbreviates awareness and truth. Moreover, we should note that intellect is not served to us in a decorated plate but we have to go and strive for it.
To educate others after getting yourself enlightened is the best possible way to take others out of the cave and the darkness. We should try to look beyond physical appearances as they can cause delusion. (Palmer, 2017)
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