The "Allegory of the Cave" by Plato makes a contrast of what we perceive and what is reality. Plato establishes a cave in which all prisoners have their legs and necks chained so they cannot move and can only see what is on the front wall. Behind them is a fire and therefore all the things they get to see is only the shadows. Shadow is the only reality that they know and hence they think that the shadow is the most real thing in the world. One of the prisoners is suddenly freed from his chains and he is forced to look at the fire. He realizes that what he sees now are things more real than the shadows after a period of confusion and pain caused by the direct exposure of the light. After that, he is dragged out of the cave where he can look directly at the things themselves. After his eyes adjust to the sunlight, he realizes that the Sun is the cause of all that is around him.
In this story, the combination of four stages of thought with the progress of human development is shown. We gain knowledge through these stages —— imagination, belief, cognitive and understanding. Plato describes the truth of how we travel the world of knowledge through our lives and understanding, and implies that true knowledge must be obtained the hard way. When we first start facing the truth, the process may be confusing and frightening. But once we have tasted the truth, we won't ever want to go back to being ignorant.
Fan Jie Yun 1200355
Fan Jie Yun 1200355
Apply to the Matrix
ReplyDeleteSir, I have done a blog post by apply Plato's Allegory of The Cave to the Matrix before this.
DeleteHere is it:
How The Matrix fits Plato’s Allegory of the Cave?
In The Allegory of the Cave, Plato describes a scene that all prisoners have their legs and necks chained. They can only see shadows reflected on the wall and they don’t know what is going on at the world outside. Hence they believe what they see in the cave is the reality. Only a prisoner that was freed from the cave know the truth after he struggling through confusion and pain.
In The Matrix, only a few people who are connected to the Matrix know what is happening in the real world. The people that have not been disconnected from the virtual world live inside a computer programme are the prisoners. Neo, after he is struggling to adapt the brand new environment, he is introduced to a transformation of life after he meets with Morpheus and agrees to follow him.
Fan Jie Yun