The Allegory of the Cave

1. The Allegory of the Cave Plato (429-347BC) Is not the dreamer, sleeping or waking, one who likens dissimilar things, who puts the copy in place of the real object? - Plato

2. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TYKNAdbhQ-w&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRNMZEDOBrM&feature=related YouTube - The Allegory of the Cave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6LUptADIww&feature=related

3. Plato’s theory of Forms The visible world is what surrounds us: what we see, what we hear, what we experience; this visible world is a world of change and uncertainty. The intelligible world is made up of the unchanging products of human reason: anything arising from reason alone, such as abstract definitions or mathematics, makes up this intelligible world, which is the world of reality. The intelligible world contains the eternal "Forms" (in Greek, idea ) of things.

4. The "Form" or "Idea" of a horse is intelligible, abstract, and applies to all horses; this Form never changes, even though horses vary wildly among themselves. An individual horse is a physical, changing object that can easily cease to be a horse; the Form of a horse, or "horseness," never changes. Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without (so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms.

5. In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind them burns a fire.  Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see.

6. Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows. So when the prisoners talk, what are they talking about? If an object (a book, let us say) is carried past behind them, and it casts a shadow on the wall, and a prisoner says “I see a book,” what is he talking about? He thinks he is talking about a book, but he is really talking about a shadow. But he uses the word “book.” What does that refer to? Couldn’t it be the same for us, fooled by our senses into thinking that we perceived reality, when in truth it is just a shadow of the intelligible world?

7. In conclusion The Allegory presents one of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually. Full text at: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html Or http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html

8. Essay – Due 16th November Compare The Matrix with Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (50%). To what extent do you think these ideas are relevant to your everyday life?(50%) Maximum 900 words