Book VIIThe Cave Allegory

The Most Famous Metaphor

•This metaphor is meant to illustrate the effects of education on the human soul.

•What is it?▫Education moves the philosopher through

the stages on the divided line, and ultimately brings him to the Form of the Good.

Let’s get clear on the terminology:•Allegory

▫A story, poem, or picture that’s used to symbolically represent a message.

•Metaphysics▫The study of being, existence, reality, etc.

•Epistemology▫The study of the nature, origin, limits, etc. of

human knowledge

The Allegory of the Cave

•“A parable to illustrate the degrees in which our nature may be enlightened or unenlightened”

•Imagine people living in an underground cave…

What would happen if one of the prisoners was released and shown the reality?

•Steps of ascent:▫INSIDE THE CAVE

Sees the objects whose shadows are projected

Sees the firelight which caused the shadows▫OUTSIDE THE CAVE

Sees shadows / reflections of “real things” Sees the real things themselves Sees the sun

•At first the person could not see the things he is being told about.

•He has to grow accustomed to them▫Like eyes adjusting to sunlight, the mind

has to adjust to reality / truth

•When he sees the sun, he concludes that it is the cause of the seasons, and is in control of everything else he sees.

•He wants to help his fellow prisoners to find out the truth.

•How do they respond to him?▫He can no longer see things their way▫He can’t play their shadow games any more ▫His eyes aren’t used to the darkness▫They mock him and think his sight has been

ruined•They decide to kill him for trying to get

them to leave the cave

What Does the Allegory Mean?

Divided Line The Nature of the World and the Structure of Human Knowledge

OJECTS STATES OF MIND

The form of the Good

Other Forms

Mathematical Forms

Knowledge (Understanding)

Physical Objects Belief

Images of Physical Objects Sense Perception/ Imagination

World of Appearances

Intelligible World

The Allegory of the Cave

What does the allegory mean?

▫In a sense, the allegory is about education and how a person becomes educated

▫Every person has the power of learning the truth, but first we have to be turned away from the “changing world” to contemplate reality

Especially, we have to turn away from all “luxurious pleasure” if we want to see true reality

Continued• The reality to which we have to turn is the

“realm of the Forms or Ideas” and ultimately, to the Form of Goodness

Plato’s Theory of the FormsPlato believes there are two worlds:

The sensible / visible world

The intelligible world

Concrete / ParticularEver-changing

Perceived by the sensesThe effects of the Forms

Ex. a just action, a beautiful thing, a good thing

UniversalUnchanging

Understood through the intellectThe causes of particular things

e.g. Justice, Beauty, Goodness

Plato’s Theory of the Forms?

▫The forms are, in a way, the definitions of Socrates turned into things. What is common to all the things called

“water”•One might argue that there is no perfect

water▫Water in the ocean is mixed with salt, etc.▫Even “pure spring water” contains a lot of

other stuff•Even if we had perfectly pure water, it’s

elements can be changed so that it is no longer water…

So……..

•The Form of Water is “Water itself” with nothing else mixed in and can never change.

The Matrix

•Context: Thomas Anderson, a.k.a. “Neo” has been contacted through his computer by someone called “Trinity”

•He wants to know what “the Matrix” is•He follows the clues until he reaches a

man named “Morpheus”•The following clip: Morpheus explains to

Neo what the Matrix is…

The Matrix

•Divide into groups

•Find the three most significant connections between Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and what Morpheus tells Neo about the Matrix.

•Then we’ll discuss the results together.