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下面为大家整理一篇优秀的assignment代写范文- Allegory of the Cave，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了洞穴寓言。《理想国》中的“洞穴寓言”可以说是柏拉图关于正义问题的整个论述的核心和高潮。洞穴的寓言描述了一个上升和下降的过程。“洞穴寓言”是柏拉图强调教育的序言，伴随着自由、解放和善良的概念。没有得到完整信息和全部真相的人就像生活在统治者建造的洞穴里。尽管经历了痛苦的过程，但逃离洞穴将使他们的精神解放。

The "Allegory of the Cave" in The Republic can be described as the core and the climax of Plato’s entire discussion over the issue of justice. The Allegory of the Cave depicts a process of ascending and descending. "Allegory of the Cave" is the preface to Plato’s emphasis on education, accompanied by the concepts of freedom, liberation, and kindness. "Allegory of the Cave" proposed in The Republic contains a great deal of contrasting symbols: light and darkness, ascent and descent, restraint and imprisonment, truth and illusion, compulsion and willingness, etc. (Plato, 2008). The scene in which the person moves from darkness to light resembles the evolution of mankind from ignorance to knowing. The original state of the human beings is considered darkness, while going into the light and out of the cave is considered their salvation. In this essay, the partial knowledge and censorship interpretation of the allegory will be discussed.

The source of modern western civilization can be traced back to Plato's cave allegory, which gives the most central statement of the Platonic ideas. The allegory illustrates the influence of education and lack of education on human nature. It fully demonstrates the power of metaphor with the use of concrete, vivid, complex, multi-faceted and multi-layered images, which can lead to a wide variety of explanations (Duarte, 2012). Shadows, puppets and the light, objects under the sun, are three sets of existence in the Allegory of the Cave. Prisoners trapped in the cave seem to refer to the average person, who take the shadow as reality and do not know about the light. The light source refers to goodness. The shadow in cave, puppets and fireworks, are the illusions. The sun outside the cave refers to the truth and the real world. Unlike the arguments of philosophical reasons that are easily exhausted, an allegory can be interpreted in so many ways, and this essay is only one of them. In this essay, it is interpreted as the importance of light, or information, for human beings. People who are not given the complete information and the whole truth are like living in the cave constructed by the rulers. The escape from the cave will be the spiritual liberation for them, despite the painful process.

The opening of Book VII of The Republic portrays the scene: the world resembles a cave, in which people are bound with chains, unable to turn their heads over and only able see what is in front of them (Plato, 2008). There was a fire burning behind these people, some with a variety of props walking between the flames and the imprisoned, some talking, others silent. Shadow cast in the hole wall. Socrates says that such strange sight and weird people in the cave are like the masses, only seeing the shadows and treating them as real things (Plato, 2008). The environment in which humans live is not a social vacuum. Someone in the cave may be manipulating the prisoners.  The question thus becomes, who. These prisoners exist within the established political system and are political followers. Human ignorance here looks like a natural state. Then, when one of them is freed, forced to stand up, turn around, walk up, and look up at the light, he would feel miserable and uncomfortable because of the incompatibility with light.

At this moment, he could still only see the things that he has seen before. However, he was not completely sure about the surroundings until someone told him that the entity of he saw at the moment was the real world. What he had seen before was just a virtual shadow. Such a scene closely resembles the conditions that most people in the society are in, not only in the era of Plato, but also in the modern society. In order to consolidate control over the people, the rulers may choose only to reveal part of the truth. This creates a false reality that mislead the masses into believing it to be the reality. Indeed, reality for the masses may not be absolute at all times, since it can be crafted and a highly relative term. In the confrontation of contradicting ideologies, the different peoples are often fed with different truths to suit certain political purposes. The internet censorship and mass media monopoly in many countries of the world are examples of such caves as well.

After turning around and feeling the pain of the eyes. The incompatibility between the body and mind make things worse for the cave people. They have to be dragged hard out from the cave and go through a rough, steep path without letting go, till he is pulled out of the darkness and sees the sun (Plato, 2008). He would even feel irritated by the dragging, and at the same time feel pain in the eyes filled with light. However, after a process he can slowly see the above ground: first the shadows, then the reflections of objects on water, and finally the objects themselves (Plato, 2008). The completion of this process ultimately enables him to confront the sun and thus concludes that the sun is the source of all light. Apparently, interpretation of the sun and the light is the most important one for this discussion. Here the sun means the truth and the knowledge, which has been hidden from the have people originally.

One important question to consider is how the process of ascending in a cave is portrayed as painful and being forced. People are accustomed to being bound or accustomed to the cave reality. It is very difficult to change the existing habits. Philosophers think that the solution must be through the training of philosophy, music, sports and other educational methods (Duarte, 2012). Through training and education, the soul thus enhances its inner cultivation. Instead of being released by his own efforts, the prisoner is forced to freedom. The force may be a natural force that reveals the truth, or the force of the enlightened to help the ones in the dark. In either case, the original state of people is always in darkness. This may resemble the process of growing up. The process of growing up is the process of horizon expansion, as there will always be new knowledge and truth that open individuals up. The same is truth for partial knowledge and censorship. The reason why people need to break free from partial information and censorship is that they have been constantly doing so in their whole lives. As an elevation of the self, seeing the light and the truth would be their path to happiness.

In conclusion, the cave allegory has profoundly illustrated the situation of mankind, and the relationship between man and truth. The transformation of the soul is so difficult that only those who understand both the world’s true nature and the need to construct virtual realities are the most suitable candidates for ruling. From the painful process of ascending, the whole truth hurt for some. This hurtful nature of the truth must be handled with care by the rulers. On the one hand, it is impossible to live in a completely false reality in the modern age, except maybe for countries like North Korea. On the other hand, people must be aware of such caves of partial information and censorship around them. This can be achieved through education and training. The truth does not necessarily require any action, as it is the state of knowing that matters the most.

References:

Plato. (2008). The Republic. Digireads.com.

Duarte, E. (2012). Plato’s “Allegory of the cave”. (pp. 69-106). Rotterdam: Sense Publishers.

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