Question

Topic 1: Plato – the allegory of the cave

Plato is inspired by his teacher Socrates, but builds a grand positive theory of true knowledge and the just society. Plato’s “Allegory of the cave” (~380BC) introduces many of Plato’s central ideas and also many of his personal and philosophical rationales.

What idea of respectively knowledge and learning/education does Plato introduce in this allegory?

Answer 1

Through the " Allegory of the Cave" Plato introduces to a world (the cave) in which majority of the people are trapped in. The cave represents the various situations of life, that binds the persons in chains and blurs their vision. All they could see is the shadows of reality,and that too in a dim light. They could not percieve the reality, until they breaks their chains and come out of the cave, or think differently, or work hard to get out of those binding circumstances. And when people get out of their situations, they are able to perceive the reality, they gain knowledge, which continues till the end of their life, and are able to gain understandings and insights for their life and thus, they attain the true knowledge or understand of the reality.