Task 3. Reflection on Plato's Allegory of the Cave

      

      Plato's Allegory of the Cave centers on understanding the effect of learning and how knowledge lead us out of obscurity. In his parable, he started by letting us imagine people living in a cave deep underground. Such cavern where the humans are situated, has a mouth that opens to the light above with a passage that exists from this all the way down to the people. He added that these people have lived in such situation from infancy, with their legs and necks bound in chains. The mere reason why they cannot move. All they  can do is stare directly forward, as the chains stop them from turning their heads around. He also added that far above and behind them blazes a great fire. Between this fire and the captives, a low partition is erected along a path, something like puppeteers use to conceal themselves during their shows. So basically, these captives lived in darkness all their lives. In the cave, their only truth are the things they see and feel. 

        But when one captive escaped, set free from his shackles and immediately made to stand up and bend his neck around for the first time, as he go and take steps, gaze up toward the fire then towards the sun, he felt terrified upon seeing things he has never seen all his life. Naturally, he turn away and run back to those things which he normally perceived and understand  as more defined and clearer than the things now being brought to his attention. Imagine the shock he felt upon knowing that the things he knew was real all his life was so different from the truer reality present beyond the scope of his own reality. At first, the prisoner found it hard to swallow and process all that he saw. It took time for him to accept the wider and truer reality, but he eventually did. The man started to make connections between the things he sees and provide reasons for their occurrences. But when he attempted to bring his newfound knowledge back to the prisoners of the darkness, he was mocked for his absurdity by saying things that are far different from their belief and reality.

        Plato's Allegory of the cave tell us that we recognize things based on what we know and what we were exposed to and experience in life. Plato's cave tells us that sometimes we are not capable of knowing and seeing greater things beyond what we perceive to be our reality because of our fear to explore and to move out of our comfort zones. Most of the time the limiting factor in gaining a deeper understanding of the world around us and the nature of things is our own selves. We are limited by what we know and our lacking desire to want to know more.

        According to Plato in this Allegory, truth differs from one person to another. Truth of someone imprisoned and trapped in a cave all his life is different from the truth of a person who is free and has been exposed to a wider and lighter world. Truth is based on our perspective of what reality is.

      Similarly, when I was a kid, I was told that being attracted to someone of the same sex is morally wrong because it is against our belief as Catholics. With this belief inculcated within my self and my perceived truth, I tried to suppress any attraction I had towards my same sex peers. But as I aged and opened up myself to a different perspective, I've realized that love is never defined by sex or gender. Love is morally acceptable as long as that love hurts no one.

        I think another idea that this allegory suggests is that, some people, even though they have already been exposed to the true reality, they still tend to disregard it because they find comfort to what they previously perceived to be their truth and their reality. They stick to their illusions and still accept it as their reality because they are too afraid to face the painful reality. Just as it was stated in the allegory, "There are two things that pain the eyes: being brought from darkness to light, and transitioning back from light to darkness." 

        Plato also suggests from this allegory that the only way to know the true reality, we must leave ignorance and spark a drive to discover the nature of things around us and to not be blinded by our false beliefs. As an educator, another striking idea from the allegory is this statement: "Of course, if I’m correct, then some of our educators are mistaken in their view that it is possible to implant knowledge into a person that wasn’t there originally, like vision into the eyes of a blind man." Truthfully, educators should not be a mere dispenser of knowledge but much more as facilitators who will help the learners gain the necessary skills to learn and discover the nature of true reality.