Plato is a revered classical Greek philosopher whose teachings continue to be applied to this day. He was a student of Socrates and lived from 427 BC to 347 BC. Among his highly regarded teachings is the classical allegory of the cave tale. In the story, Plato applies metaphoric techniques to highlight how human kind view and perceive reality wrongly. Precisely, the allegory’s message is that our senses are deceptive as they are just imperfect reflections of the reality that can only be seen clearly by those who yearn for knowledge in a disciplined manner (Blackburn 33). This paper will give a brief description of the allegory and analyze whether the story truly reflects the condition of humanity.
The Allegory of the Cave
The classical tale begins with a scenario where captives are chained inside a dark filled cave. Inside, they are surrounded with darkness which is all they can see and this is therefore their reality (Plato 8). Plato illustrates the possibility of what might happen if the prisoners are suddenly freed and exposed to the divine sunlight, and whether their strongest conviction they held inside the dark filled cave as the truth and reality might change. This metaphor seeks to answer what might happen if individuals embrace philosophy to become enlightened, instead of living a carefree life.
In the allegory, Plato presents a scenario where a warden lights a burning fire close to the cave filled with prisoners. Plato narrates that the prisoners are likely to perceive the shadows created on the walls by the light as the truth because of their situation of being held in darkness for a long time has made them believe what surrounds them is the ultimate truth. The prisoners cannot even question whether the shadows are falsehoods because they rely on their eyesight to evaluate reality (Wood 509). Plato then presents a scenario where the prisoners are freed suddenly into the real world. He is of the view that some of the prisoners would be so frightened by the change and will opt to return to their comfort zone, that is the dark filled room that they have already gotten used to. However, the courageous ones would embrace the drastic change; they will look at the sunlight and discover the world in its truest form that had been hidden away from them for a long time. They would realize the state they were experiencing in the dark filled room was characterized by falsehoods. That is, metaphorically, their past lives were lived in deception. Plato suggests that we turn wise and embrace the light of the sun by leading a true life guided by understanding of happenings around us from a critical and philosophical point of view.
Part 2 Analysis
In the allegory tale, the dwellers of the cave are presented as being ignorant from the fact that what they perceive sensually through their eyesight is a shadowy projection of sculptures mimetically formed in the shape of objects they are meant to present (Zamir 81). Plato uses sculptures instead of actual objects for which they stand to illustrate how non-philosophers are prone to fall victims of the second level illusion in the Platonic world. For instance, if an object sculptured to look like a book were used to cast a shadow on the wall of the cave, the prisoners would assume they are seeing a book (Zamir 81). The mistake they do at this point is that they believe they are talking of a book, which correctly refers to the object used to cast its shadow on the wall.
However, this is mistaken because the prisoners will be using a book to refer to a sculpture, which is the correct object that cast the shadow on the wall. Plato states that:
“And if the prisoners could talk to each other, don’t you think they would suppose that the names they use correctly apply to the things cast before them?” (515 b2)
Plato’s example also applies to humanity’s condition in the contemporary world as discussed in the below paragraph on stereotypes. Humans apply stereotypes to make wrong judgments about their counterparts.
I agree with Plato’s depiction of humankind condition in his allegory of the cave tale. To this day, majority of us are still metaphorically chained to the walls like the dwellers of the cave. The majorities who are ignorant and are led by stereotypes that make them believe what they perceive through their eyes to be the truth (Wood 498). For instance, since the September 11 terrorist attacks, an overwhelming percentage of Americans have developed the stereotype that Muslims are behind every terror attack. They land to this conclusion because of the happenings that are aired in the media about the Middle East suicide bombings that take place almost each day. From a philosophical point of view, this is a good illustration of how we end up making mistakes in our judgments by perceiving appearance to be reality (Wood 499). Both Plato and his teacher Socrates spent a considerable part of their lives teaching their students about the importance of not perceiving appearance as reality. Unless an individual applies philosophical critical thinking and has solid grounds to land on a given conclusion, then their view is at least closer to the truth. Unfortunately, this is not the case in todays’ world. The majority are swayed away by entertainment such as television, Hollywood productions that are known to have biased themes, and other forms of recreational activities such as drug abuse. In addition, the school curriculum is not developed to encourage critical thinking among the students. All these factors bar individuals from questioning the choices made by their leaders in a democratic environment that continues to become liberal. Some of these leaders use the powers of the offices they hold to perpetuate selfish interests that are detrimental to societies’ future stability. It is justifiable to conclude that the society is in darkness. For the people to be able to free themselves from the darkness and attain enlightenment, they need to adopt philosophical critical thinking in their everyday encounters (Wood 512). They should fight the stereotypes they have developed over the years for them to see the truth clearly.
In his book, Plato’s political philosophy, Huard, an American political philosopher uses the allegory to measure the contemporary liberal democratic platforms. The author notes that there is a great need to clarify Plato’s intended concepts and teachings from their subversion by Augustinian Christian teachings (Huard 6). Some of the Christian teachings developed atop Plato’s concepts by Augustus during the first century AD were biased. Some evangelists continue to mislead ardent Christian followers who believe they are the chosen one to see salvation while the rest of the world perishes in everlasting fire (Tarnopolsky 307). According to Huard, persons should question what is presented to them as truth even if it is by the church leaders. This way, they will succeed in realizing Platonic concepts of freedom, truth, justice, and equality (Huard 11).
Works Cited
Blackburn, Simon. Plato's Republic: a biography. New York: Grove Press, 2006. Print.
Huard, Roger L. Plato's political philosophy: the cave. New York: Algora Pub., 2007. Print.
Plato. The allegory of the cave. Brea, CA: P & L Publication, 2010. Print.
Tarnopolsky, Christina. "Platonic Reflections on the Aesthetic Dimensions of Deliberative Democracy." Political Theory 35.3 (2007): 288-312. Print.
Wood, Robert. "Image, Structure and Content: On a Passage in Plato's Republic." The Review of Metaphysics 40.3 (1987): 495-514. Print.
Zamir, Tzachi. The face of truth. Metaphilosophy. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers, 1999. Print
