Plato and da cave: an explanation
My apologies to anyone who reads this and becomes confused, for this sounded right in my head.
Humans will forever be shackled, they will never be able to know the full truth at any given moment, and when they do know the truth, what's the point of knowing? If it only makes life harder to understand and harder to live peacefully. In Plato's Book VII there is a passage known as The Allegory Of The Cave and it is about education and its effects on humans. Plato is trying to get across the fact that education is both a good thing and a bad thing, as well as how an uneducated society can be a recipe for disaster.
First off an explanation on what is happening in the work. Plato goes into detail about an interaction between Socrates famous philosopher and Plato's brother Glaucon. Socrates is talking about prisoners who are chained up in a cave not able to look around or move, sitting stationary looking at a wall. Behind them, there is a low wall where people are walking with statues like puppets, and behind that, there is a fire casting only the shadows of the statues onto the wall that is in view of the prisoners. So these prisoners who have been put here for their entire lives, live knowing that these shadows are not statues but people walking behind them. Then one day a man comes to save one prisoner, the prisoner tries to look at the "people" behind him but is blinded by the light of the fire. Then the prisoner is dragged to the surface, the prisoner gets his eyes to accustomed to the light of the sun and remembers the social classes of his previous life and how it relied upon if you could know which shadow was which, and what time they came and so forth and so on. Then the man would become envious of those in the cave and how he could no longer obtain that. So he goes back down to the cave only to have his eyes ruined, accustomed to the sun, no longer able to see things clearly in the caves. And he would be ridiculed by his peers for this, so would they not contemplate to kill the man who took his time to free them and take them to the surface?
Secondly, what does all of that mean in the time of Greece? Well at the time Socrates was "Exposed" to the sunlight, which is meant to be education. And when he goes to spread the word, and "goes back into the cave" or goes back to Athens. he is shunned and pushed away, for the people did not want to hear him. These people who were brought up on just believe in the government, and don't want to work to learn new things. This is why Socrates was put to death, he was found guilty for "corrupting the youth" basically teaching them another way to learn, that is new and they don't like that for they have been brought up on another way of learning.
So, how is this relevant today? Well in today society most people shun away from change especially when it is hard to do, and people don't like the repercussions of changing. They don't like to start from the bottom again, and most people hate to be shunned away just for being diffrent or knowing information. So quite a few people just leave change alone and fall into a pattern never questioning things. People are like prisoners, except they are allowed to change, they aren't shackled to the ground. Except for its drilled into the brain that staying a prisoner is "social norm." So the people who change or leave sometimes they are shunned from people, or they don't like what they learned and try to go back, to an unforgiving community.
Plato is an incredibly intelligent man, and he tells us that if we care enough about the truth, it is important to learn the truth and not to care what others think. We need to be able to think for ourselves and not go along with the flow, for there might be more out there, than just dancing shadows on a wall. We as humans cannot change without hardships and struggles, however, it pays off in the end, even if people shun or ridicule you. As Plato states "Appy yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, you cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation."
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf
Humans will forever be shackled, they will never be able to know the full truth at any given moment, and when they do know the truth, what's the point of knowing? If it only makes life harder to understand and harder to live peacefully. In Plato's Book VII there is a passage known as The Allegory Of The Cave and it is about education and its effects on humans. Plato is trying to get across the fact that education is both a good thing and a bad thing, as well as how an uneducated society can be a recipe for disaster.
First off an explanation on what is happening in the work. Plato goes into detail about an interaction between Socrates famous philosopher and Plato's brother Glaucon. Socrates is talking about prisoners who are chained up in a cave not able to look around or move, sitting stationary looking at a wall. Behind them, there is a low wall where people are walking with statues like puppets, and behind that, there is a fire casting only the shadows of the statues onto the wall that is in view of the prisoners. So these prisoners who have been put here for their entire lives, live knowing that these shadows are not statues but people walking behind them. Then one day a man comes to save one prisoner, the prisoner tries to look at the "people" behind him but is blinded by the light of the fire. Then the prisoner is dragged to the surface, the prisoner gets his eyes to accustomed to the light of the sun and remembers the social classes of his previous life and how it relied upon if you could know which shadow was which, and what time they came and so forth and so on. Then the man would become envious of those in the cave and how he could no longer obtain that. So he goes back down to the cave only to have his eyes ruined, accustomed to the sun, no longer able to see things clearly in the caves. And he would be ridiculed by his peers for this, so would they not contemplate to kill the man who took his time to free them and take them to the surface?
Secondly, what does all of that mean in the time of Greece? Well at the time Socrates was "Exposed" to the sunlight, which is meant to be education. And when he goes to spread the word, and "goes back into the cave" or goes back to Athens. he is shunned and pushed away, for the people did not want to hear him. These people who were brought up on just believe in the government, and don't want to work to learn new things. This is why Socrates was put to death, he was found guilty for "corrupting the youth" basically teaching them another way to learn, that is new and they don't like that for they have been brought up on another way of learning.
So, how is this relevant today? Well in today society most people shun away from change especially when it is hard to do, and people don't like the repercussions of changing. They don't like to start from the bottom again, and most people hate to be shunned away just for being diffrent or knowing information. So quite a few people just leave change alone and fall into a pattern never questioning things. People are like prisoners, except they are allowed to change, they aren't shackled to the ground. Except for its drilled into the brain that staying a prisoner is "social norm." So the people who change or leave sometimes they are shunned from people, or they don't like what they learned and try to go back, to an unforgiving community.
Plato is an incredibly intelligent man, and he tells us that if we care enough about the truth, it is important to learn the truth and not to care what others think. We need to be able to think for ourselves and not go along with the flow, for there might be more out there, than just dancing shadows on a wall. We as humans cannot change without hardships and struggles, however, it pays off in the end, even if people shun or ridicule you. As Plato states "Appy yourself both now and in the next life. Without effort, you cannot be prosperous. Though the land be good, you cannot have an abundant crop without cultivation."
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf
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