Since human abilities of thought and speech are dependant on the Forms, linguistic terms derive meaning through ‘naming’ the Forms both perceived and participatory. Plato’s allegory aims to describe the process undertaken to achieve a level of reflective understanding. Therefore, comfort of the perceived, and fear of the unknown result in the prisoners forceful ascension from the cave. Plato describes the vision of ‘real’ truth as painful and distressing to the eyes and that the natural inclination is to retreat to the previous painless acceptance of ‘truth’. Importantly, this conveys the notion that post-nascent human understanding of reality is falsely based on imperfect interpretations, and that general linguistic terms are not the ‘names’ of observable objects, but rather they identify invisible, mental constructs.įollowing his release, the prisoner’s recognizes the fire and objects previously dictative of his perception of reality, and realizes his error, understanding that these new images are the “true” reality. What the prisoners see and hear are reflections of unseen objects they cannot associate with ‘reality’ which are consequentially perceived as ‘reality’. To them, only a cave wall is visible, but behind them exists a fire, and a parapet from which puppeteers cast shadows. Plato understands that people can think, and speak, without awareness of Archetypal Forms, but equates them to prisoners, confined in darkness, bound to the floor, and unable to turn their heads. In summarizing ‘The Cave’ it is essential to consider its twin components of fictional metaphor and the Platonic tenets. His explanation transpires, independent of the prisoner’s perspective, as discourse between Glaucon and Socrates, who presents an alternate axiom on the understanding and role of reality in human existence. In it, Plato presents a metaphor contrasting beliefs and perceptions, demonstrating the effect of education on human psyche, and the progression of cognitive activity. Some scholars further contend that Platos argument is “wrong” (Jaskaw, 2001 Heidegger in Borody, 1980). Plato’s ‘Allegory of the cave’ like most philosophical discourse is unrestricted to any singular interpretation. ‘… the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.’
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