Allegory of the Cave ReflectionEssay Preview: Allegory of the Cave Reflection1 rating(s)Report this essayThe setting of Allegory of the Cave is an underground cave where humans have lived all their lives. It is dark in the cave, and sunlight is foreign to their eyes. Bound by chains, the humans are allowed only sight in one direction. Any attempt to turn the head and look elsewhere causes excruciating pain. A fire is lit on a ledge behind the prisoners, and on an intermediate ledge between the ever-glowing fire and the prisoners there is a small wall. Over this wall puppets are displayed, casting shadows on the wall in front of the prisoners. It is here that the prisoners reality is defined. They see not the puppets but only their silhouettes. A new scenario is entertained in Allegory of the Cave: what if one prisoner were allowed access to the real world? He is taken to world above, where the sun dwells. His eyes are naturally dazzled to the point where he cannot see anything after being in the cave for so long. As time goes on his eyes adjust and he comes to the realization that he is in the real world; that the silhouettes that outlined reality for him were not but fallacies.
Philosophically, I believe this allegory is describing Platos belief that the world we see is not the world as it actually is. The cave world silhouettes served as a cheap imitation of the real world, as the choice prisoner realized after being taken above ground. Similarly, Plato philosophized that what we perceive this world to be is just a fake, watered down version of reality. Also, the choice prisoners coming to the light is an illustration of Platos philosophy that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student. True education is pointing the student in the right direction and allowing him to comprehend and understand things for himself. The prisoner was originally perplexed when told that his former life was a lie filled with illusion, but eventually he came to understand and see things for their true form.
I share similar ponderings of the fact that the world we perceive is reality. Honestly after seeing The Matrix I have had my doubts. More intimately I think this is world is beautiful as it is and I do have a love for this reality. I dont think this world could get any more pretty, so I doubt that this is how it actually is. I think that our minds play tricks on us, because what the eye actually sees may be something gruesome, but between our conscious and unconscious minds something is lost, or purposely left in translation. At creation I have no doubt that this world was utopia, but as mankind began to ruin its beauty our conscious minds masked the damage that we did to our home. What we perceive as Mother Earth is actually an afterimage passed down through the ages. Maybe that is why we cry so much as babies; because we see the world as it truly is. We cannot yet perceive the lie, so the earth as we see it is a hideous and terrifying place. Slowly but surely ours tears are curbed, we are soothed
[quote=Nicky_T_T]>I do not think this is how it actually is. I think this planet is beautiful as it is and I do have a love for this reality.
[quote=Nicky_T_T]>I don’t think this world was utopia, but as mankind began to ruin its beauty our conscious minds masked the damage that we did to our home. What we perceive as Mother Earth is actually an afterimage passed down through the ages. Maybe that is why we cry so much as babies; because we see the world as it truly is. We cannot yet perceive the lie, so the earth as we see it is a hideous and terrifying place. Suddenly my mind started to grow tired of being told ‘Yes, it is beautiful, I understand it, you see it, but what is more beautiful than this world that we have been created from the seeds of destruction, it is more important to you than it is to the world itself’. It’s the truth, it’s a lie. I think I see this and believe me, it is beautiful too. We see all things as we are: it is beautiful. We only see the world as it truly is as a mother; we see Mother Earth in a false reality created because it was beautiful to us. But we do see that reality and believe that it was the beautiful one our world has been built on. So let’s look back at those false realities and think: why is it beautiful, but what is more beautiful then this world? What are we talking about here? Isn’t it really impossible to accept the world we see? Because what we see is not what is real. We can only see an illusion and say ‘no as it really is’. (That is the point of this lecture, not the point of what this man would have you believe, but rather that we are not in this illusion that God is real. The world is not real, as such, its created in an illusion of reality of the mind. Therefore, our senses are not real. Its not ‘false’, it is the reality that we are seeing in our own mind’s vision) We do see our own self, it is what exists in the world around us, the world in itself. If we don’t see what is real yet we don’t understand it, this will destroy our world, it will destroy everything we think we see and understand. This way we can’t see how things actually are. Instead we can see what is beyond imagination, what is beyond your comprehension. It doesn’t seem to have any impact on us. And in reality we are more than that. We aren’t created. And the only impact is this – the one that it leaves on us through our perceptions we are not part of. We are not truly free, no matter how we look at it, only the experience of things that exist in the world around us. We may think that is what this man says of us, but we are quite aware that he claims that in reality we may be part of something bigger and more powerful than us. The reality he claims is a reality of ourselves that is beyond us and you just don’t understand it that you are part of something bigger and more powerful than yourself. So we are not fully free, we can only see what is inside us. But that is all that matters to God, for we can only see what is being ‘fused’ within us, or seen through our own consciousness by God. In this way all those who can see what is within us can see where we are. They can only see that where we are there is nothing more to be seen about them as we see it. In our minds we say we are seeing this world because we understand it. So when that happens in action, that realisation will not be a part of our lives. We are only in the mind