Platos cave

[lightgiver]

Socrates begins his presentation by describing a scenario in which what people take to be real would in fact be an illusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ

The Allegory of the Cave, also commonly known as Myth of the Cave, Metaphor of the Cave or the Parable of the Cave, is an allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". (514a) The allegory of the cave is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon, at the beginning of Book VII (514a–520a).

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of the cave entrance, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

The Allegory is related to Plato's Theory of Forms,[1] wherein Plato asserts that "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. Only knowledge of the Forms constitutes real knowledge.[2] In addition, the allegory of the cave is an attempt to explain the philosopher's place in society.

The Allegory of the Cave is related to Plato's metaphor of the sun (507b–509c) and the analogy of the divided line (509d–513e), which immediately precede it at the end of Book VI. Allegories are summarized in the viewpoint of dialectic at the end of Book VII and VIII (531d-534e). This relates to the idea of forms as people struggle to see the reality beyond illusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRNMZEDOBrM

http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/new_phil_partridge.html

wakey wakey rise and shiny.;):D

[pri01]

Socrates begins his presentation by describing a scenario in which what people take to be real would in fact be an illusion.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ

The Allegory of the Cave, also commonly known as Myth of the Cave, Metaphor of the Cave or the Parable of the Cave, is an allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education". (514a) The allegory of the cave is written as a fictional dialogue between Plato's teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon, at the beginning of Book VII (514a–520a).

Plato imagines a group of people who have lived chained in a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing in front of the cave entrance, and begin to ascribe forms to these shadows. According to Plato, the shadows are as close as the prisoners get to seeing reality. He then explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not constitutive of reality at all, as he can perceive the true form of reality rather than the mere shadows seen by the prisoners.

The Allegory is related to Plato's Theory of Forms,[1] wherein Plato asserts that "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality. Only knowledge of the Forms constitutes real knowledge.[2] In addition, the allegory of the cave is an attempt to explain the philosopher's place in society.

The Allegory of the Cave is related to Plato's metaphor of the sun (507b–509c) and the analogy of the divided line (509d–513e), which immediately precede it at the end of Book VI. Allegories are summarized in the viewpoint of dialectic at the end of Book VII and VIII (531d-534e). This relates to the idea of forms as people struggle to see the reality beyond illusion.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zRNMZEDOBrM

http://whatisthematrix.warnerbros.com/rl_cmp/new_phil_partridge.html

wakey wakey rise and shiny.;):D

BUMP

I liked this post:)

[1977]

All of Plato's Republic should be required reading.

[lightgiver]

All of Plato's Republic should be required reading.

All good works should be required reading at infant school ;):D

http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/PlatosCave.htm

Socrates: To them the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.

The prisoner's in Plato's cave are the poor ordinary men, like me and you. Fortunately there are philosophers who are not happy with what they see or hear and they turn their heads and even try to get out from the cave to see the “real” world. Today the situation is even worse, there are some who control the fire, the projector of the images and finally what we see in order to control us (at least they try).

In the seventh book of “The Republic” the Greek philosopher Plato discusses our situation of the understanding of the world. In an allegoric view we live in a cave having our legs and necks chained so that we cannot turn around our heads and can see only before us. Above and behind us a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and us there is a raised way; and we see a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show their puppets. The situation is like in a movie theatre where we observe the shadow of objects on a wall using as a projector the light of a blazing fire. From these limitations we try our best to understand the world from the shadows of the objects.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8srCq5YJYBI