the allegory of a cave....and my discussion about Plato theory
In the allegory ,Socrates decide that a group of the people who have lives live imprisoned in the cave by just looking at the walls and its shadows dare not see a brighter side of life that lies not within but outside.just like honeybee who whishes to taste the nectar of different flowers and rejoice by eating them unlike that people of the cave diffrentirate themselves from the reality of life that lies ahead outside from the cave.just like the fire which is lit between the prisnors and the wall they are meant to believe that these shadows are made for suffering and inclined to detail an argument where the prisoners are supposed to see the right purpose.they fail to see the world outside of the cave that is brighter and safe.
Departure from the cave
Plato then says the prisoner is now freed.the prisonor will look around and see the fire .this light will hurt his eyes and make it difficult for him to see the shadows casting from objects.
Now if we assume that if someone force him and drag him up the rough steep path way and never stop until he brings him out from the cave onto the light of sun.
Still the prisonor would be angry and in pain and this will only worsen when the light of the sun will overwhelm him and make him blind.
Slowly and gradually his eyes will adjust to the light of the sun.first he can see only the shadows ...gradually he can see the reflections of people and things in water and see the people and things and themselves.
Eventually he will be able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally he can look upon the sun itself.
Return to the cave
Plato continues says that the prisonor is freed from and think that the world outside him will be far superior to the world he experienced inside the cave and attempt to share this with the prisoners remaining in the cave attempting to bring them onto the journey he had just endured he will bless himself for a change and pity for other preisonors.and will bring his fellow prisoners out to the sunlight .
The returning prisoner whose eyes have become accustomed to sunlight ,would be blind when he re enters the cave ,just when he was first exposed to sunlight.this will inform the other prisoners who from the other angle sees that the prisonors inferred blindness has caused harm to him from outside .so they will think that they should not undertake the same journey.
Symbolism
The allegory consumes that many forms of things have instructed the nature of reader to exemplify the superficial physical reality.it thus represent s ignorance as this ewho wer e living in cave living and accepting at what they saw at face value.
The ignorance is further represented by the darkness that engulfs them because they cannot see the objects that form the shadows ,leading then to believe that shadows are the true form of objects.this chains that prevent them from leaving the cave represents that they are trapped in ignorance and stopping them from learning the truth.
The freed prisoner represents those who understand the physical world' is only a shadow of the truth and the sun that is glaring the eyes of the prisoners represents the higher truth of ideas.the light furthur represents unconsolidated wisdom that further enrolls the captive prisoners to learn the truth of life even while casting shadows beside the fire.
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