In Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, Plato goes into depth on how easy it is to manipulate a society into following certain rules and doing as they’re told. He demonstrates how people’s ignorance leaves them too blind and ignorant to face the actual truth that lies outside the cave or what’s actually going on. People tend to be way more gullible than what we actually think they are, as a society we believe we’re strong, enlightened, and full of power when in actuality the puppet masters control most of us. Those who have a position of power tend to think that they’re the most enlightened or they are omniscient, but they’re just as blind as those with no power.
Plato’s main metaphor for the Allegory of the Cave is based on how each one of the prisoners are completely blinded by their own ignorance they can’t seem to overcome it, not being to face reality. His metaphor of the cave could simply be interpreted as how, life is what you make of it. “If we’re thinking about the effect of education – or the lack of it…” (514b). The images/shadows reflecting on the wall of the cave are a representation of a world of false appearances, they appear to be something they’re not, while the sun outside the cave is the true reality. The prisoners ignorance prevails their ability to see the truth, they choose to not move their heads continuing to believe the false truth that the images on the wall represent. The prisoners are people who are a part of a society that was placed inside the cave to be fed a false reality; they don’t seek the truth, they simply don’t care about who they are or where they come from, they’re happy in the misery they choose to believe in. They have a false identity and a false truth that is able to chain them to the cave. They’re chained by their own ignorance and denial that there is anything other than what the puppeteers choose to put in front of them. The illusions created by the shadows/images keep them thinking that what is in front of them is the one and only truth, they seek nothing more. The prisoners are simply chained to a holographic universe, too weak minded and ignorant to see past the illusions presented to them on the walls of the cave, they’re held captive by something that is completely unreal believing it’s the truth.
The prisoners are able to exit the cave by being able to acknowledge that there is more than the shadows/images that are presented to them by the puppeteers. Seeking the truth and knowledge allows them to search deeper within, realizing that the reality they’re living in is nothing more than a fake perception of the truth. In Plato’s allegory the prisoners don’t seek anything, they are content with what they see, until one of them is released and compelled to leave the cave and finally becomes enlightened by the true reality outside the cave walls. Exiting the cave is quite complex, the prisoners have been fed this fake reality for so long that they have no idea that there is more to life than what is being forced down their throats by those in power. The prisoners are held down by chains that have been created by the tremendous amount of ignorance they hold, their ignorance is bliss. After a person is able to escape the ignorance of the cave, they become enlightened by the truth that the sun holds, going through self-fulfillment. The sun is the truth leaving the prisoner blind as he/she takes it all in slowly adapting to what is real. The freed prisoner tries to spread his new found knowledge/wisdom with the prisoners in the cave, only to be shut down by their overflowing ignorance and lack of the truth. “Think what their release from their chains and the cure for their ignorance would be like” (515c-d). The ignorant prisoners can’t believe their ears, they lack enlightenment going as far as to threaten the freed prisoner, if he dares to set them free they’d kill him/her.
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Plato believes that the human soul is broken up into three main parts, each part corresponds to different classes of society in a city that is considered just which is known as the tripartite state. While the tripartite self would be considered a society that is built around three main classes of people, these classes of people consists of the producers, auxiliaries, and guardians. To plato justice plays a major role in the health of ones soul, to him a just soul is one that has its parts arranged accordingly. In book eight Plato talks about five regimes that are considered worthy of discussion; aristocracy, timocracy, oligarchy, democracy, and tyranny. He describes each of the regimes as if they were people who are a part of the city, the characteristics they hold from the regimes, “In which cae, if there are five types of city, then for individuals there will likewise be five dispositions of the soul” (544e). The person resembeling an articrocy is good and just, timocracy is the ‘honor-driveb man,’ who in a sense rules the government, there’s also oligarchy who resembels a man who is driven by his appitites.
