However it is reachable by passing through different limitations His Both Plato and Descartes argue that humans are trapped by wrong assumptions and beliefs. In his essay Allegory of The Cave, Plato proves how people are fooled to believe in wrong ideas. He uses a cave to present the world of sight, in which people are prisoners since the day they were born. The people in the cave cannot see the light, neither each other’s, because their hands and neck are chained and they cannot move. These people only see what in front of them is.
For the first time he saw the real world and knew that what he was seeing far beyond the shadows from the cave. Later, he returns to his fellow prisoners in the cave to tell them about the real world. To his astonishment, the prisoners did not believe him and instead, became angry. They believed that the shadows were reality and that the escaped prisoner is crazy for saying otherwise. According to Plato, the outside world represents the world of forms.
They cannot turn their heads around; they can only look forward at the wall of the cave. A light comes to them from a fire burning some distance behind them. Between the fire and the chained men is a raised platform on which a low wall has been built. Behind the wall are people, like puppeteers, who carry all sorts of articles like statues of men and other living things which they hold above the wall. Some of the bearers speak and others are silent, as you might expect.” “I see,” said Glaucon [Socrates’ student].
There are human beings in a dark cave, bound by chains and facing the wall; they see only shadows of themselves and the shadows that are shown to them by other human beings behind them. They have been there since birth, so what they see on the wall in front of them is what they perceive as reality. However, one is finally set free from his chains and thus is able to see the real reality; he is able to see the world as it exists not as it is shown to them. He sees the shadows, then reflections, then objects themselves, then the stars and the moon, and finally sunlight, which symbolises the actual nature of things or the truth. After having set eyes on the sun, this man cannot go back to the cave, to the dark, and see the world as he used to before he started contemplating the truth.
Behind the prisoners there is a fire and the shadows were cast on the wall, which are the only thing the prisoners could see. As a result, they imagine the reality by the shadows and become their beliefs. Then one prisoner gets out the cave, and walks outside to the real world. The bright light from the sun shocked him initially, but later on he learns about the concept of the world, and finally recognizes the sun is the ultimate truth. I believe there are similarities to our learning process, for instance, when I studied chemistry at the high school, many chemical formula and equations which I found very difficult to understand.
They also had no choice in participation, as they were serving on a jury and locked in a room. They also referred to each other by number, not knowing each others names. The many prejudices made it difficult to share opinions freely and made it difficult for ease of reception. For example, when juror 10 (Ed Beagly) expressed his thoughts about the boys disadvantaged life in the slums, juror 5 (Jack Klugman) becomes defensive and it creates quite a disturbance in the group. Another example is when the two jurors were playing tic tac toe and obviously not listening to juror 8 and giving him the respect of their attention.
The “shackles” are like a symbol of how they all have this same way of living and thinking. Each of them have been tied together in this world of not knowing the life outside of the “cave”. The thought often scares those without the ability to understand that reality is what one may make of it when embracing the situations you may encounter daily. (The Republic) Yes, I do believe it is important for people to escape “the Cave”. According Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" The chained man was suddenly released from his bondage and let out into the world.
Plato refers to untutored humans as the chained prisoners who can’t be able to turn their heads in the cave. The cave represents the world humans live in for the things they see do resemble their true forms just like the prisoners could only see the shadows cast on the wall, hear the echoes produced by the real objects behind them. They could not be able to turn their heads to see the puppeteers walking behind them and the fire that is producing the light that enables the puppeteers reflect their real objects on the wall. It is easy for the prisoners to mistake reality for the images in appearance. If an animal shadow is cast on the wall, the prisoners will talk about having seen an animal thinking they have seen the real animal.
We are introduced to” human beings” who have been in this dark underground den since their “early childhood”, and have had their “legs and necks chained” ever since, preventing them from any kind of movement at all (FYR: 6). Since they are not able to turn their heads they can only see shadows which are projected to the walls by fire which is located directly behind them (FYR: 6). They are unaware that they are prisoners because of their present state since childhood. There is a path between the prisoners and the fire. This path is used by people who carry “all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials” on their heads (FYR: 6).
a) Who is keeping the prisoners of the matrix ignorant and for what purposes? Are the chains keeping the prisoners of the cave and the prisoners of the matrix in bondage physical or psychological? b) Briefly list the similarities in the five stages of enlightenment for the freed prisoner in Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and for Neo in The Matrix. c) What are three key differences between Neo’s enlightenment in The Matrix and Plato’s prisoner? 1a) As Morpheus says: “When the Matrix was first built, there was a man born inside who had the ability to change whatever he wanted, to remake the Matrix as he saw fit.