PLATO

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Introduction
The Allegory of the Cave is a piece of Plato’s philosophical writing that was written in the form of the allegory. He presents it as a dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon. The Allegory of the Cave was extracted from Plato’s classical book called the Republic. It is worth noting that an allegory is a piece of writing that portray two types of meanings. The first meaning is the literary, which simply portrays the face value of the subject matter. The second meaning is allegorical, which portrays the symbolic aspect of the subject matter. In this piece of writing, Plato is trying to communicate that it is very difficult to understand and prove things that we sense with our sight sense. Through Allegory of the Cave, Plato is trying to portray the truth by encouraging the people to be open-minded when approaching matters affecting humanity (Duarte 69). Therefore, this paper will cover my understanding of the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave as well as determining whether it is a persuasive view of philosophy.
Just like any other allegorical work, Plato used the setting, characters, and actions to communicate to the audience. From the writing, it is evident that darkness surrounded the cave and the objects around the cave were not visible enough. However, some people appeared to be having chains on both the necks and the feet. The chains hindered their movements. Apart from the cave, the writing also revealed the outside the cave’s surrounding.

However, there is a big divide in the form of a wall that separated the cave and the rest of the world. From the cave, the people inside can see the shadows of the people moving that they think to be true. However, these shadows are mere illusions. The world outside the cave is the real world while the world inside the cave is the illusion. Besides, the writing also emphasizes on the difficulty in regards to seeing when an individual shifts from the cave world to the real world (Hall 35).
From the writing, it can be argued that the dark cave was used to symbolize the world associated with high level of ignorance and uncertainties. On the other hand, the chained people inside the cave symbolizes ignorant people who live in the ignorant world. Moreover, the wall dividing the two worlds symbolizes the challenges and the thinking limitations of the ignorant people from accessing the ideal world. The illusive shadows symbolize the anxiety of those in the cave from knowing the happenings of the world outside the cave. Therefore, it is apparent that Plato is trying to claim that appearance is always misleading because they normally represent false (Hall 43).
Furthermore, the chains can be said to symbolize the limitations and the difficulties that prevent the ignorant in the society from knowing the realities of the real world. Therefore, Plato is trying to highlight the society that the breaking of the chain is the only method of accessing the real world. The breaking of the chain simply means overcoming the hurdle of ignorance arguably through education. At this point, it can be argued that Plato is trying to blame ignorance as the main factor that is preventing the people from differentiating between appearance and reality (Duarte 76).
In the allegory, the individuals at first find it difficult to see in the world outside the cave from the cave. However, after some time, they are able to see properly. This symbolizes that ignorance is not a permanent condition, therefore, it can easily be eradicated. Consequently, it is without a doubt that Plato is in the opinion that education together with the true philosophy is the only remedy for overcoming ignorance. However, the process of overcoming ignorance is met with many challenges and in a way, the world rulers can be argued to be responsible for barring delivery of true education for their subjects. This is because the rulers are afraid of making their subjects differentiate falsehood from truth, injustice from justice, as well as right from wrong. Therefore, the world rulers can be said to be one of the elements that represent the chain.
The Allegory of the Cave is indeed a persuasive view of philosophy. Plato in this writing is exploring persuasion as a remedy of changing the injustices in the society. It is also worth noting that Plato through his works, has presented himself as a communist. Therefore, through this writing, there are chances that Plato is attempting to address the issue of the equality in the society through persuasion. This is because he presented the cave as the inferior world full of ignorant people while the world outside the cave as an ideal world (Duarte 79). He blamed ignorance, oppression, and bad governance for being responsible for the creation of these two sets of the worlds. Therefore, it can be said that Plato is trying to appeal to the rulers to exercise good governance as a way of promoting the equality among the people that they serve.
Works cited
Duarte, Eduardo. “Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”.” Being and Learning (2012): 69-106.
Hall, Dale. “Interpreting Plato’s Cave as an Allegory of the Human Condition.” Apeiron 14.2 (2014):
34-54.