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Allegory Of The Cave By Plato

Decent Essays

Allegory of the Cave
Human experiences are an everyday aspect of individuals lives. The way individuals see, touch, smell, feel, and even remember is through unique experiences. People do not realize it, but our everyday life and community shape how the mind experiences certain events. Because of these, the way individuals see the world is different from person to person. The mind interprets the world around the individuals, however, it can only interpret what it is exposed to. It is up to the individuals to allow the mind to be more aware of the human experiences by having more knowledge of the surrounding, having no false reality, no ignorance, and accepting enlightenment. The Allegory of the Cave, by the philosopher Plato, successfully …show more content…

In real life, the cave symbolizes an individual 's community. These prisoners have no other experience, besides what they see and know from their own experience, which is very similar to individuals who stay in their own communities and never venture beyond to see what else is out in the world. From this, a person will always feel “confident about personal experience” , however “unfortunately this confidence can cause us to attach greater significance and universality to particular events than they deserve” (Ruggiero 73). Just like the prisoners, people rely heavily on their own personal experience to be the source of knowledge for what is around. However, similar to the prisoners, there is no guarantee that what is being seen is the truth of the human experience. This is because humans “engage in a complex process which draws on the behavior, knowledge, and skills...of the world we live in” (Baud & Miller). This idea further exemplifies how the mind is only aware of what it is exposed it to due to the unique personal experience. Plato successfully demonstrates the awareness of the mind with human experiences through the metaphor of a cave in Allegory of the Cave. The written work, The Allegory of the Cave, by the philosopher Plato, describes the awareness of the mind of human experiences through the use of metaphors with shadows to represent false reality. In the story, the prisoners

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