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Plato's "The Allegory of the Cave". « philosophy
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"I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use." - Galileo Galilei

» posted on 10:19pm - October 20 2004 | posted by dogfish

Read it.

For those of you too lazy to read all that, here's a summary of The Allegory of the Cave.

In a cave lived chained people. They can't turn their heads in any direction and they can't see anything but one wall of the cave. On this wall there are shadows created by a fire that burns behind them. People walk across a low wall carrying objects and sculptures and the chained people see these shadows. They assume the shadows are real, and all there is. However, there is a light, exit. They can't see the exit. But one man is taken out of the cave by a teacher and shown the light. It dazzles him at first. When told about the real world the people in the cave don't want to listen, they don't understand and they fear the light.

It's an allegory about our world. There is another plane which we cannot reach but we must try to. Here exists the absolute, absolute beauty, good, etc. What we can see infront of us is not real but meerly a shadow of the real world.

Of course, there's a lot more to it than that and you should just read the thing.

Thoughts? Questions? Things you would disagree with?

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posted by: HerxMassacre · date: 9:24am - March 28 2007
herxmassacre
Oh I read this in my A.P. class... it's a really interesting concept... could you say it's related to evolution, growing as a race? I guess thats how most would read it... I originally thought it was about slavery... but realized that was too generic... I guess if you think of slavery as metaphoric... I don't know, Plato's mind is baffling.
Piece by piece, the manifestation... of a world, that is man, his own God: his creation.
newbie (1364 AP) » total items: 34 / total posts: 77 » 0.000 / 0.000
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posted by: Nemo Metis · date: 3:24am - June 22 2005
nemo_metis
I have to admit myself that this is pretty much the only thing in the entirety of Plato's The Republic that i agree with. other than this he can stick the rest of this up his arse.
I am the human race's worst nightmare.
The human race is my worst nightmare.

Guess who go the raw end of the deal.
Fuck.

I can ail what cures you.
newbie (5490 AP) » total items: 112 / total posts: 311 » 0.000 / 0.000
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posted by: SilentSorceress · date: 11:22am - February 06 2005
silentsorceress
Until just now I'd never read much about philosiphy... I barely even knew who Plato was. But damn, that guy was smart! I didn't disagree with any part of that writing. I wish I could think of stuff like that
newbie (461 AP) » total items: 18 / total posts: 183 » 0.000 / 0.000
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posted by: Fates_Tool · date: 8:31pm - December 15 2004
fates_tool
It has been a little while since I have read "Allegory of the Cave," but it remains amongst my favorite works of Plato. I think it is true that there is a need for philosophers in governing positions. Those who are wise will rule best, but those who lust for power are the rulers who rule most common.

This work in particular is actually what persuaded me to change my major from Pre-Med to Pre-Law. I hope to go back into the cave someday and do my best to lead the others out into the light.
I live amongst the shadows, a wraith of many horrors. I live life in darkness, paying homage to the Gods of death. Alas, my prayers go unanswered, so I must bare the indignity of existence.
newbie (97 AP) » total items: 3 / total posts: 10 » 0.000 / 0.000
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posted by: KillingDaisies · date: 5:54pm - October 24 2004
killingdaisies
___It might be hard to understand "The Allegory . . ." today because Plato has an understanding of "good" that may not be exactly the same as ours . We live in a world that is transitioning from modern to postmodern . The society at large is in the process of doing away with the notions of "ultimate good" and "heaven" and "God" . Furthermore, American society more or less has the notion that "freedom" is the ultimate good . In Plato's day, the ultimate good might have been seen to be "peace" or "health" or "happiness" or "wisdom" . The idea of "autonomy" takes prescedence over a lot of things in society, today, even in light of the very recent and current tendency towards compromising that virtue for the sake of Homeland Security . In many instances in "The Allegory . . .", it might be useful to replace "good" with "truth", or "welfare", or "prosperity", etc.
___As for what I think of it . . . well . . . who the hell am I to disagree with Socrates ? I think what Socrates says makes perfect sense . If the men who didn't want to run for public office were elected, we might have a better country, because those men have "seen the Sun", or at least have seen more "daylight" than most of the politicians I've seen and heard on television . It's just that nowadays, those men who know what is right refuse to go back down "into the cave" of human, political affairs .
___I think the reason for this is capitalism . Capitalism rewards men who live "in the cave" and punishes men who "act ridiculous" in the realm of base human affairs because they've seen the light .
A nihilist would rather light an 11 megaton candle than curse the darkness but . . . a nihilist would rather get drunk and eat cake and have sex than light an 11 megaton candle.
newbie (2833 AP) » total items: 36 / total posts: 419 » 0.000 / 0.000
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posted by: HeavenlyCorrupt... · date: 1:31am - October 21 2004
heavenlycorrupted
It seems like a very possible theory.

Also, it reminds me of how if you're blind, you would never be able to fathom sight, let alone color, and if you're deaf, you'd never be able to fathom sound, let alone music.

It makes me wonder: there could be another sense out there, but we'd never be able to imagine it.

But I'm getting off the subject.

I don't really know if Plato's theory could be true. But then again, I didn't read the whole thing. I'm in a lazy mood.
teach us to care and not to care.

teach us to be still.
newbie (2525 AP) » total items: 110 / total posts: 624 » 0.000 / 0.000


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