Plato's myth of the cave (Essay Sample)

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Plato’s Myth of the Cave
Also referred to as the "Allegory of the Cave”, Plato’s "Myth of the Cave" is a representation of a unique metaphor that indicates the different ways people perceive the world they are living in. the metaphor illustrates how people think and what they believe is reality. The thesis of the myth is that we do not see the reality, but a reflection of the real forms. However, we tend to believe in what we see because we are not exposed to the reality. The myth has two basic elements that the audience needs to consider revisiting to understand. The first element is the metaphor of prisoners, and the second element is the philosophical representation of "ourselves" in the story through allegory.
Plato talks about chains in the myth that have held the prisoners immovable within the grave. The chains have fixed them in one place that they can only see shadows of the real objects that pass in front of the fire behind them. However, the prisoners cannot turn back and see the real objects behind them (Watt 5). They are therefore forced to believe that they are seeing the reality. The chains in the myth represent the obstacles that prevent people from seeing the reality. The chains are handcuffs that render people immovable and hence they cannot face the real world beyond their horizons. The chains in this myth represent the government during Plato’s time. The government did not give people the chance to reflect on their own knowledge and awareness. The government did not allow people to make their own decisions and judgments for self-governance. The people being governed were just required to adhere to the rules and manipulations by the government without asking any question. It is evident that the government was keen to prevent the masses from accessing knowledge of the reality that would make them conscious and attain self-governance.
In the myth, Plato says that "the prisoners are like ourselves" and "the prison is the world we see with our eyes." The prisoners are like ourselves because what we perceive to be reality from birth is actually not the reality. We come across reality after we gain consciousness and understanding the real forms in the world around us. We are prisoners because the government does not allow us to believe in ourselves and do what we think is right. All we can do is to sit back, relax, and adhere to the imperfect forms that we are forced to live with. We never struggle to find the reality in the world that we see with our eyes. Some of us are restricted to the imperfect forms that we cannot even differentiate between perfect and the imperfect forms. It is unfortunate that we are not even willing to face the reality after being unchained. This is indicated in the myth by the prisoner’s unwillingness to believe in the reality. Even after being taken out of the cave, the prisoner still believes that the shadows he was seeing in the cave are the reality. He is exposed to light but he feels uncomfortable because he was used to the darkness in the cave. He thinks that the light is painful and that he cannot live with it. The light is the reality that we need to face but some of us are not ready to do it. We think that reality is painful and hence we should stick to the past where reality does not exist. However, we need to concentrate on the reality and come out of the chains like the prisoner in the cave. We should stand up strongly and seek self-governance, awareness, and purpose in life. We should therefore speak for ourselves and pursue what is good for us.
There are biases that originated from our biological, social, and cultural conditions that related to the metaphors in the Myth of the Cave. Personally,...