Who is plato talking to in the allegory of the cave

Plato posits that one prisoner could become free. He finally sees the fire and realizes the shadows are fake. This prisoner could escape from the cave and discover there is a whole new world outside that they were previously unaware of. This prisoner would believe the outside world is so much more real than that in the cave. He would try to return to free the other prisoners. Upon his return, he is blinded because his eyes are not accustomed to actual sunlight.

The chained prisoners would see this blindness and believe they will be harmed if they try to leave the cave. Despite being centuries old, the allegory is appropriate for filmmaking. After all, the audience watches images on a screen. Numerous movies utilize this concept in their plots and themes.

You can likely think of plenty of films where a character believes one reality and then becomes exposed to another, greater reality and is never the same. For a more detailed "Allegory of the Cave" summary, you can watch this animated film narrated by Orson Welles. You can see how universal it is and how it can be applied to your own film. For more about allegories in general and how they relate to filmmaking, we have a more in-depth post on that subject.

The text is formatted as a dialogue between Plato and his brother, Glaucon. Within this conversation, they discuss what would happen if a group of prisoners realized the world they were watching was a lie. Plato uses this allegory as a way to discuss the deceptive appearances of things we see in the real world. Through it, he encourages people to instead focus on the abstract realm of ideas. In a literal sense, a movie is just a series of images. But digging deeper, they present unique ideas and themes that we can take with us into the real world.

To a prisoner in the cave, Parasite is a film about a family who gets jobs working for another family. In this example though, no harm was done. Of those who have ruined my blissful ignorance many have done so through their own blissful ignorance… the less ignorant I become the more bliss there is in the wonder of the nature of ignorance and the delight in the greatness of diversity… until I realise how ignorant I am.

I am just the same. Thanks Scott — Would it be fair to say the more we learn the more we realise we have to learn? Yes, at once. We do not exist in isolation. The shackled in the cave could not have equally and collectively stumbled on the idea the sounds were related to the shapes — someone would have put this to them — one brave individual idea, to a consensus of what was collectively known….

So, if there are only 2 in the cave and they disagree about the sounds and shadows, who is ignorant? Great question Jason!

And is the very idea of truth independent, or subject to acceptance or agreement? I think truth is subject to acceptance and agreement because it can change over time as further knowledge and evidence evolves e. Perhaps truth is as much about cultural, social mores and politics as fact or evidence e. Is the first stage of freedom that experienced by an unshackled prisoner equivalent to the freedom in the decision of remain in the cave taken by others prisoners?

I have certainly estranged friends and family through my insistence on propaganda and puppet shows. Some would rather think that collusion is illusion. The TED talks guy says there are many people like me. Look around you.. Turning into shadows.. Thats ridiculous. There is a pandemic, of course the world is living in fear. I completely agree with you. People have been conditioned and indoctrinated to accept this false reality of the Scamdemic. None are masters, and none can discern the truth.

The one who leaves the cave sees only greater shadows. As for any pleb who thinks the pandemic is a conspiracy, or somehow fake- you are merely that prisoner chained to a rock in a cave, staring at a wall in the flickering light, and claiming you can see shapes in it but the puppeteers left days ago because they cannot stand you. And it is weird lol. Not everyone in society has the chance to escape and learn the truths of things to become the Philosopher. Give everyone a chance to escape the cave and then society as a collective will be educated and know the truth of things.

This is my perspective at least. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. It goes like this: The Cave Imagine a cave, in which there are three prisoners. The prisoners are tied to some rocks, their arms and legs are bound and their head is tied so that they cannot look at anything but the stonewall in front of them.

These prisoners have been here since birth and have never seen outside of the cave. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between them is a raised walkway. People outside the cave walk along this walkway carrying things on their head including; animals, plants, wood and stone. The Shadows So, imagine that you are one of the prisoners. You cannot look at anything behind or to the side of you — you must look at the wall in front of you.

When people walk along the walkway, you can see shadows of the objects they are carrying cast on to the wall. If one of the prisoners were to correctly guess, the others would praise him as clever and say that he were a master of nature. The Escape One of the prisoners then escapes from their bindings and leaves the cave. He is shocked at the world he discovers outside the cave and does not believe it can be real.

As he becomes used to his new surroundings, he realizes that his former view of reality was wrong. The Return The prisoner returns to the cave, to inform the other prisoners of his findings. They do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free. The Shadows The Shadows represent the perceptions of those who believe empirical evidence ensures knowledge. If you believe that what you see should be taken as truth, then you are merely seeing a shadow of the truth.

Plato is demonstrating that this master does not actually know any truth, and suggesting that it is ridiculous to admire someone like this. The Escape The escaped prisoner represents the Philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside of the cave and outside of the senses. The Sun represents philosophical truth and knowledge His intellectual journey represents a philosophers journey when finding truth and wisdom The Return The other prisoners reaction to the escapee returning represents that people are scared of knowing philosophical truths and do not trust philosophers.

I before E except after C. It is weird. Lol Reply. These prisoners represent the lowest stage on the line—imagination. A prisoner is freed from his bonds, and is forced to look at the fire and at the statues themselves.

After an initial period of pain and confusion because of direct exposure of his eyes to the light of the fire, the prisoner realizes that what he sees now are things more real than the shadows he has always taken to be reality. He grasps how the fire and the statues together cause the shadows, which are copies of these more real things.

He accepts the statues and fire as the most real things in the world. This stage in the cave represents belief. He has made contact with real things—the statues—but he is not aware that there are things of greater reality—a world beyond his cave. Next, this prisoner is dragged out of the cave into the world above.