Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Jun27,2018

The Allegory of the Cave

Plato, both a teacher and a writer in his book “The Allegory of the Cave” tries to bring into our understanding the truth about the universe and the existence of the divine power that leads to the eternal life. In his book, he describes the writings and lectures from other philosophers about life as misleading facts that have no foundation or proper background. He describes that light transforms and individual and brings to his/ her reality the existence of all phenomena on the earth. Light makes an individual understand his real world and avoid false teaching from other philosophers. [I am not sure how this relates to the prompt? Bringing in historical background is not needed for an analysis paper. The prompt is specific to examining the elements presented in the Cave, so background information is not needed. This is just summary, so for a summary or a traditional research paper, this might be a good technique, but not for analysis, especially when you summarize the story more below. You will want to work on trying new techniques for introductions. We will practice more as well]

Plato present a story of prisoners who are chained in a cave and cannot even see the rays of the sun. They are enclosed in a dark cave and chained and the only light they are exposed to is the light from a fire light closer to them. Rarely do they see the sun or its rays thereof and act of moving them to the sun is destructive to them as they are not accustomed to the light. In the caves, they are under their master’s rules and instructions. They are dependent on their master for both knowledge and survival.” Better to be the poor servant of a poor master”, The Republic, The Allegory of the Cave. [Well, this is just summary. Where is your analysis, meaning what do you THINK? So Plato is presenting these ideas about master and prisoner. Do you agree? Why or why not? Have you any personal experience to support your thoughts? Don’t just summarize the story. I have already read the story, so the analysis should be about what do you THINK of the story.]

What Plato tries to bring into our understanding is that where there is light, darkness ceases to exist. Light is compared to the truth which brings about renewal of the soul. Darkness is compared to the false teachings by other politicians and philosophers who in their understanding want to change the thinking of other humans for their own selfish benefits. His opinion is that in this world, the idea of light which represents truth is the last of all. Humanity thrives on error. Since the power and the capacity exist in our souls, he urges that we should strive to gain a state of being which is of the truth.”, The Republic, The Allegory of the Cave, Accessed, June 27, 2018. [I am not sure why you are using quotes. No quotes should have been used. I have already read the paper, so I don’t want to read a collection of quotes. For the analysis, I (the reader) what to know what you think about the ideas presented. So what do you think about the idea that humans are selfish and don’t change their mind easily? Do you agree or disagree? Use personal experience to support your thinking.]

Overall, you have only presented a summary of the story and used quotes instead of presenting your own thinking. In fact, there isn’t much analysis. I know I didn’t teach you analysis, but it does show that you need to work on developing your analysis skills. So, we are going to practice this and refine those skills. You didn’t tell me what YOU think about Plato’s concepts of the cave. For example, when you summarized the sunrays, you should have told me what you THINK it means and how it relates to your life. However, you have shown that you can summarize, which is a good skill, but we are trying to move beyond summary. I want to read what are your thoughts.