Allegory Of The Cave

Plato once asked, "Do we learn with one part of us, feel angry with another, and desire the pleasures of eating and sex with another? Or do we employ our mind as a whole when our energies are employed in any of these ways?" Plato had many ideas on how one's mind, body, and spirit came together to perform actions and thoughts. One important idea he broke down, was the conception of the soul in "Allegory of the Cave". He broke this idea into three different parts and each of these parts played a role in the feelings of man. These parts were referred to as the sun, the line, and the cave.

The sun symbolized the Form of the Good; the ultimate object of knowledge, according to Plato. The prisoners in the cave looked at nothing but shadows on a wall from the statues which was made to make them believe that the shadows are the most real things that are in the world. In order to reach the Form of the Good, you must be able to see what's real, resulting in a prisoner's release to the outside world.

The prisoner released is now able to look at the fire and the statues, but is in disbelief that the shadows are not the most real things in the world. This is where the line comes in. The line represents the four stages of cognitive activity that a human being is capable of doing. The prisoner now believes that the fire and the statues are the most real things in the world.

After the prisoner is dragged into the outside world, he sees real objects. The cave illustrates the effects that education has on a human being. The prisoner doesn't have to imagine what real things are because he now knows what the most real things in the outside world are. He sees real trees, real flowers, and even the sun, which he learns is the cause of the real objects being seen.

The Allegory of the Cave is a process of the growing mind. We grow from imagination, to belief, to forms, and finally, we grow to understanding. Plato's