The Allegory of the Cave

Plato understands that humans can think and talk without knowledge of his formal domain (as they admit).

In the fable, Plato can not turn his head by comparing a person who is not trained in formal theory with a prisoner trapped in a cave. They only see the walls of the caves. I burned a fire behind them. There is a handrail between the fire and the prisoner, and the puppeteer can walk along this railing. The puppeteer behind the prisoner raised the doll that casts a shadow on the wall of the cave. Prisoners can not see these cockroaches. The prisoners saw and heard the shadows and echoes thrown by things they could not see. This is an example of Plato cave.

These prisoners mistake the reality and appearance. They think that what they see on the walls (shadows) is true; they do not know the real reason of the shadows.

So what are they talking about when prisoners are talking? When things (books, what we say) are carried behind them, it shadows the walls, the prisoner says, "I saw a book" What is he talking about What?

I think he is talking about a book, but he is really talking about the shadow. But he uses the word "book". What do you mean?

Plato gave an answer on line 515 b 2. The text here is bothered by many editors and is often fixed. The translation of Grube / Reeve correctly points out this:

"If they can talk to each other, do not you think the names they use apply to what they see?"

Plato's view is that prisoners will be misunderstood. Because they are not real shadows (as Plato sees), they use terms in their language to point to their previous shadows.

If the prisoner says "books", I think that the word "book" refers to what you see. But he is wrong. He only saw a shadow. He could not see the real mention to the word "book". In order to see it, he will need to turn his head.

Plato's view: The general term in our language is not the "name" of what we can see. They are actually the names of things we can not see, we can only use our minds to master things

After releasing prisoners, they can turn their heads to see the real things. Then they realize that their mistakes can do the same thing as we turn the head to see the shadow? We can grasp shapes using ideas

The goal of Plato in the Republic is to explain what is necessary to achieve this introspective understanding. However, even without it, our thinking and speaking power varies from format to form. Regarding the terms of the language we use, we gain meaning by "naming" our perceptive objective to participate.

Prisoners can learn what a book is by their experience with the shadow of a book. However, if you think that the word "book" refers to what one saw, it would be wrong.

Likewise, we can get concepts through the perceived experience of physical objects. However, if we think that the concept we have is at the same level as we perceive, we will be wrong.

The allegorical cave "allegory of the cave" is Plato's theory. In the story, three prisoners are sitting in a cave facing the back wall. They were tied to the neck and could not turn their heads. There was a fire behind them. Between the fire and the cave there are raised areas where various dolls move the wall and cast shadows. Prisoners can not see it all. Beyond the cave, behind it there is an exit to the cave.

Plato's allegations against this cave are completely indicative of this metaphysical separation. The fable began with a cave in which a prisoner was trapped in a chair carrying a picture on the wall. Plato compares these pictures with the appearance of the world. Then the prisoners were forced to stand up and began to see where the photos came from He saw the photos were caused by moving wooden characters in front of the fire, and the appearance is just It was a shadow. This is the view of scientists who studied the cause of the world. Our prisoners were forced to leave the cave and enter the glare of the sun When his eyes slowly adapt to the light, he shadows the tree, reflections in the water, the tree itself ( Or, finally the sun) Plato's point of view is the philosopher's point of view.