Research Paper on "Plato the Allegory and the Cave"

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Research Paper 3 pages (1025 words) Sources: 4

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Plato's Allegory of the Cave is one of the central episodes of the Republic. In the Republic, Socrates teaches Glaucon about reason, human perception, ethics, and justice. The allegory of the cave is one such episode in the Republic, in which Socrates uses a story to illustrate his main philosophical points. A group of human beings are kept as prisoners in a cave. The cave therefore symbolizes darkness and ignorance, and is also an apt metaphor because human beings as cave men are the evolutionary precursor to the modern, enlightened human being like Socrates or Plato. The state of ignorance is also portrayed as a type of psychological imprisonment. Moreover, the human beings living in the cave are fascinated by the images dancing on the walls. Those images are technically shadows that shift form and shape when figures move before the fire. However, to the prisoners, the images on the wall are real. Like watching television, the viewers mistake the show for reality. They are so captivated by the shadow play that the people inside the cave do not even question whether the images are real, and what they might mean. The same can be said for people who watch too much television. When one prisoner is set free, the initial reaction is disbelief and shock. The prisoner must be dragged to the outside of the cave to understand how narrow the worldview of the cave-dwellers actually is.

The prisoners inside the cave are like prisoners of the consumer culture, always driven to earn more money in order to buy more things. Yet the pursuit of material wealth is an empty endeavor. Those who pursue wealth for its own sake are rarely happy, and rarer yet they are enlightened. Depending on the material world for one'

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s highest moral values is detrimental to ethical behavior. Like the people living in the cave, the person who depends on the material world would develop a distorted worldview. Ethics that are shaped by narrow-mindedness, illusion, and the false images portrayed on television or newspapers are not shaped by reality at all. Plato shows that only by facing the sun, a symbol for truth and enlightenment, can human beings truly develop an ethical worldview and act ethically.

Materialism enables an illusory ethic. The ways shadows behave on walls, or the ways characters behave in television shows, is not the way human beings should be designing their ethical codes. Without truth, no ethics are meaningful. Ethics must be grounded in reality. Furthermore, ethics cannot be based on the shallow, illusory, and one-dimensional reality of the material world. Just as there is more to life than the cave, there is also more to life than what can be purchased with a credit card. If materialism and the quest for wealth subsume all other ethical quests, then the result is the modern capitalist system in which the pursuit of profit is more important than human rights. Materialism is a false ethic.

Human beings can still derive pleasure from the material world while acknowledging the shallowness of materialism. Plato suggests that… READ MORE

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Quoted Instructions for "Plato the Allegory and the Cave" Assignment:

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Hello this paper is from Plato: The Allegory and the Cave. The writing point is as followed.

In what ways would depending on the material world for one*****'s highest moral values affect ethical behavior? What is the connection between ethics and materialism? Write a brief essay that defends or attacks materialism as a basis for ethical action. How can people aspire to the good if they root their greatest pleasures in the senses? What alternatives do modern people have if they choose to base their actions on non materialistic, or spiritual, values? What are those values? How can they guide our ethical behavior? Do you think they should?

That is the the writing point. This is for Eng 112 I don*****'t know if u guys do rough drafts as well?

Thanks

1. All papers will be typed (computer-printed), double-spaced, with approximate 1 1/2***** margins (top, bottom, sides) to allow for professor*****s comments.

2. Use no cover sheets, folders, title pages, etc. For essays 1 thru 4, place the following on the first page of the essay:

(a) Top left corner of beginning page, double-spaced: your name, course number/section, date, essay number (E-1, E-2, E-3, etc.).

(b) Center of beginning page: Title & name of essayist/***** about which you are writing, for ex., *****Ends vs. Means***** (Machiavelli).

(c) Three or four lines beneath your title..............Begin introduction of essay.

3. Include proper MLA documentation in all essays. Every essay will contain at least three (3) parenthetical, in-text citations of quoted/borrowed material from the text-essay and/or from outside research sources.

4. All papers will have a properly formatted Works Cited Page as the last page of the paper, unless the only source used is the single reading from the textbook, in which case a proper works cited entry at the bottom of the final page of your essay will suffice, provided enough space (6 or more lines) exists there.

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