The Allegory Of The People - 1374 Words

Sometime between 507 and 517 B.C. Plato transcribed a story from Socrates that could describe the ignorance and enlightenment of people and their interactions with change called â€Å"the Allegory of the People in the Cave†. Two of the major recurring themes in the story illustrate the epistemological argument as well as the views of rationalism. I will also briefly explore the tangent of Empiricism inspired by the story’s experiences to help understand the cause and effects of ones search for knowledge. In this essay we will summarize the story and explore the philosophical views of those characters in and why in the end they feel the way that they do, â€Å"The Allegory of the People in the Cave† text is more than a story but rather an important†¦show more content†¦207), in turn because this was the only perceived vision the people within the cave began to identify and name these shadows creating their own world where whispers and shadows would becom e the only known forms of perception â€Å"To them the shadows are the only truth†(pp. 208). Until one day one of the chained persons was freed by an unknown. When released the newly unrestricted person was now free to move independently, however this new freedom caused him much pain as his body was not used to such movement, head turns, and walking was quite excruciating. Even more perplexing than these new sensations of discomfort with movements was the vision of new and foreign objects never before seen by anyone within the confines of the cave. At the beginning of his forced ascension he is forced to identify and begin naming these object that he has seen with the puppets that those objects casting shadows not immediately recognizing that these were indeed the objects creating shadows along with the fire that was previously perceived as the sun or the equivocation thereof. Forced further up the cave to the point where he exited the darkness and entered into the sunlight. He was suddenly blinded by the sheer radiance of the light of the real world, the painful adjustment to the sunlight light allowed him to explore further into this new world he had been