Platos Use of Metaphor of Shadows in His Allegory of the ...

Platos Use of Metaphor of Shadows in His Allegory of the Cave Plato uses his Allegory of the Cave to explain to people the awareness of his realm of forms. Plato uses the prisoners in the cave to symbolise the people without the knowledge of the Theory of Forms. 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. The rare individual escapes the cave and, through a long journey-discovers a higher realm, a true reality, with an awareness of Goodness as the origin of everything that exists. Plato was trying to get people to understand that we are like the prisoners†¦show more content†¦Like the prisoners, we will resist this knowledge because we are happy with what we know and believe that what we see is all there is. Plato used the cave and the outside world to explain his idea of there being two realms of the senses. The cave represents the incomplete knowledge which is only practised by the body. The outside world represents the complete knowledge or the true knowledge which is only practised by the immortal soul. Plato believes that we all have a soul which contains the information about the true Forms however we forget these true Forms. Therefore the shadows on the wall of the cave represent the shadows of the true Forms. The Cave also symbolises appearance and the outside world symbolises reality. The outside world contains the true Forms e.g. justice and beauty, which do not change. They can only be known by the soul and not by the eyes. The Sun symbolises the highest of these Forms, the Form of the Good. It is this Form of the Good that gives us the true knowledge of reality. The prisoner who escaped saw the sun and gained the knowledge that the images on the cave wall are just shadows of reality. b) On what grounds might Platos understanding of human reason be criticised? 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