Philosophy 1301
Response Paper – Allegory of the Cave
The way this story illustrates Plato’s rationalism is that the cave story compares the
ascent from mere common knowledge to wisdom. The story itself is an illustration of how we are
all born basically as “prisoners” shackled to the wall as infants who do not understand basic
common knowledge as we know it. As we gain knowledge, we “ascend” and break free of the
shackles and begin to be able to move our heads, and use our eyes as compared to in the story
where they cannot move. When Plato makes statements about how the eyes need adjustment
from coming out of the light and back into the darkness, it refers to enlightenment. For example,
when Plato states coming out of the darkness and into the light, one would be able to discern the
shadows means that they would have the knowledge to know the difference and would not want
to go back to the darkness at that point, and would pity the others in the darkness. To me, that
would mean that once you have learned something you have been enlightened enough to know
that you do not want to go back to the world of becoming, or the darkness. This is what I believe
is what Plato is trying to relay in this story.
As for the world of sense experience and what Plato teaches us, he states in the Allegory
how one would call out and hear a voice call back to us like an echo. If we didn’t know any
better, we would not know that it was our own voice calling back to us or possibly the shadow
calling to us rather than another person. He states that we would deem reality to be what we see
or appear to be, and not for what they really are. We would simply suppose the speaker to be the
shadow on the wall unless we understood that what we were hearing were ourselves and knew
the difference to be reality.
Response Paper – Allegory of the Cave
The way this story illustrates Plato’s rationalism is that the cave story compares the
ascent from mere common knowledge to wisdom. The story itself is an illustration of how we are
all born basically as “prisoners” shackled to the wall as infants who do not understand basic
common knowledge as we know it. As we gain knowledge, we “ascend” and break free of the
shackles and begin to be able to move our heads, and use our eyes as compared to in the story
where they cannot move. When Plato makes statements about how the eyes need adjustment
from coming out of the light and back into the darkness, it refers to enlightenment. For example,
when Plato states coming out of the darkness and into the light, one would be able to discern the
shadows means that they would have the knowledge to know the difference and would not want
to go back to the darkness at that point, and would pity the others in the darkness. To me, that
would mean that once you have learned something you have been enlightened enough to know
that you do not want to go back to the world of becoming, or the darkness. This is what I believe
is what Plato is trying to relay in this story.
As for the world of sense experience and what Plato teaches us, he states in the Allegory
how one would call out and hear a voice call back to us like an echo. If we didn’t know any
better, we would not know that it was our own voice calling back to us or possibly the shadow
calling to us rather than another person. He states that we would deem reality to be what we see
or appear to be, and not for what they really are. We would simply suppose the speaker to be the
shadow on the wall unless we understood that what we were hearing were ourselves and knew
the difference to be reality.
