Myth Of The Cave Essay

Words: 518
Pages: 3
Open Document
The Greek philosopher, Plato maintains an idea, namely the “Myth of the Cave.” Plato begins this myth by having Socrates ask Glaucon to imagine a cave where people have been imprisoned from birth. He states that these prisoners are chained so that their legs and necks are pinned down, which forces them to stare at the wall directly in front of them, rather than looking around at the cave full of other people and themselves. Within the myth, Plato shares that behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway with a low wall. Behind this wall, there are people who walk while carrying objects or puppets "of men and other living things". The people that walk behind the wall are unable to be seen by the …show more content…
I believe that the cave is representing the world, and the prisoners are us, or those who inhabit the world. Next, the chains that prevent the prisoners from seeing what is surrounding them, represents our ignorance, and enable us from seeing the truth in the world that we live in. And finally, the shadows that objects cast on the walls of the cave represent what we see in the present world. The question becomes, is everything we see merely an imitation and sometimes even only an imitation of an imitation? Plato asks us to accept the concept that even apparently man-made objects like beds and chairs have an original form belonging to a changeless, eternal world of Forms created by God. This leads to his conclusion that life, and art itself, is not a reality, but an imitation. Plato’s believes that since badness cannot be created by God, it is an illusion. From this, we see that evil represented in art is only an illusion. Furthermore, he states that if it is not God, it is not real, therefore it should be treated with caution in artistic representation. I also am confident that we cannot make God responsible for the evil objects in our world. We must find some other way to account for evil and a way to do this is to view things merely as an
Show More

Related Documents: Myth Of The Cave Essay

Comparing Aladdin's Tales From 1001 Nights

Eric Lozano Great Myths and Legends Prof. Sacha Moore 10/8/14 A Whole New World Tales From 1001 Nights have been a joy to readers since the 18th century. Tales From 1001 Nights are a series of Arabian based tales with a plot concerning a woman telling her tales to a king in order to delay her execution. They are stories within a story. One of the stories in the collection has made Tales From 1001 Nights more popular than it did during the Islamic Golden Age. That story is none other than Aladdin…

Words 1865 - Pages 8

Essay on The Hobbit and Quest Theme

– Critical Essays/Major Themes http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/hobbit/critical-essays/major-themes.html The Quest The major theme of The Hobbit is the quest, one of the oldest themes in literature. As a scholar of ancient languages and literatures, Tolkien would have known the theme well through Greek and Norse myth and Old- and Middle-English poetry. The quest theme is central to the story of Beowulf, the Old-English epic about which Tolkien published an essay of lasting scholarly…

Words 792 - Pages 4

Great Gatsby Essay

similar. Trope of this couple- how did this connection get made? Making a statement ART HISTORY Theorist they used in the book was John Berger- rather Marxist approach to art critique- his approach is called cultural studies- begins with lascow cave paintings , france circa ancient times all the way up to the present ex. Lady gaga arriving in egg deliberately playing upon birth of venus, also had dress made out of meat- possible interpretation of gender politics, objectification of women- female…

Words 683 - Pages 3

Beowulf Essay

Beowulf Essay Beowulf, one of the oldest surviving epic poems of Anglo-Saxon literature, is a heroic adventure of a great Scandinavian warrior battling dragons and ogres. Beowulf is a very memorable story because it makes use of exemplary examples of literary elements. It also demonstrates values of bravery and loyalty that were important during the warrior era. Three elements that help develop the poem are bravery, antagonists, and imagery. Bravery is one of the key elements of this poem. Beowulf…

Words 639 - Pages 3

Genesis Park Thesis

Under the “Essays” tab there is a page titled “Probabilities, Monkeys, and Natural Selection” where I found that they defended the so-called “monkey myth” by taking a Hawking quote far too seriously; “very occasionally by pure chance they will type out one of Shakespeare’s sonnets.” And their attempted professional response; “This…

Words 938 - Pages 4

Woman Essay

149052937 Reading ‘A Passage to India’ in light of ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone De Beauvoir ‘The Second Sex’ by Simone De Beauvoir is an essay talking about the position of women as ‘the other’. Simone primarily asks “What is a woman?” She mentions that ‘man’ represents both the positive and the neutral while ‘woman’ represents only the negative. ‘Man’ is commonly used to designate human beings in general but ‘woman’ is just defined by limiting criteria, without reciprocity. Simone cites that it…

Words 1565 - Pages 7

Hesiod Versus Ovid Essay

Philosophy versus Cosmology A Comparison of Creation in Hesiod’s Theogony and Ovid’s Metamorphoses By Catherine Franklin To fully understand the poems; Metamorphoses and Theogony, one needs to understand more about the writers. Hesiod was a greek poet, who lived around 700BC, and was inspired by muses to write epic poetry. Theogony is considered one of earliest works and concerns itself with the cosmogony, or the origins of the world and theogony, or the gods, and pays specific detail to genealogy…

Words 1901 - Pages 8

Essay about Myths and Narratives: The Origin of the Humanities HU300Unit 2 Assignment

HU300: Art and Humanities: 20th Century and Beyond Prof. Richard Elder Kaplan University November 24, 2014 By, Heather Leigh Bradley “Ring Around The Rosie” “Ring Around The Rosie” is popular nursery rhyme that first appeared in an English version in Greenaway’s Mother Goose: The Old Nursery Rhymes in 1881 (Greenaway, 2001). The 1881 “Ring Around The Roses” was recited as “Ring-a-ring-a-roses, A pocket fill of posies, Hush! Hush! Hush! Hush! We’re all tumbled down” (Greenaway,…

Words 2508 - Pages 11

Seeking For Ariadne In The Post-Modern Labyrinth

photography has been questioned. Artists like Jeff Wall, Tom Hunter, Hannah Starkey and many others make falsified photography documents when exploring broader themes of perception, authenticity, notion of every day or other cultural issues. This essay will examine two French artists Sophie Calle and Mohamed Bourouissa, who examines photography as a document. But before that I believe it is necessary to explore the origins of such critique. Photography because of its mechanic nature has been associated…

Words 1861 - Pages 8

Art Must Hang!—Must Art Hang? by Matthew Bowman Essay

twentieth century. How artworks have been displayed to the public has a long history, and the different methods that have been used for display suggest the varying social contexts that the artwork has been made in. Even if we turn our attention to the cave paintings produced by our ancestors some 28,000 years ago, we note how the vertical space of the wall seems to have struck them as a natural home for their works. Fast-forwarding in time, Renaissance fresco paintings were placed on the walls of churches…

Words 4561 - Pages 19