Allegory of the Cave Essay

Theme of Freedom, Responsibility & Education in the Allegory of the Cave The myth of the cave is a famous allegory, written by Plato in The Republic. It was written in the form of conversation between Socrates and Glaucon and covers the idea of shadow against light or how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened. The story tells about the cave in which people live from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them and cannot turn their heads. Behind them is a fire which is blazing in a distance. Between people and the fire there is a roadway where puppeteers are carrying all sorts of figures and statues of animals. Prisoners can only see the shadows of these figures and completely unaware that these are only soulless statues. The idea of the cave symbolizes shadow or what we believe to be real, while the sun represents education, enlightenment and truth. Further Socrates tells that if prisoners are released from th eir chains, than they would probably believe that the shadows are more real than what is really produces them. Or in other words if to show the prisoner the statues which are the initial cause of these shadows, than he or she would not know what they are. For him or her, the shadow will be more real than the actual thing. And if one of the prisoners will go out of the cave, then he or she will not be able to distinguish which world is real and which one is unrealistic. Plato depicts the path of teaching as the route to freedom, as a release from those chains which tie human beings to the play of shadows, as the flight from this land of bondage into a shape in which humanity becomes aware both of his previous state of bondage and of the origin of those shadows to which he was before. The main aim of education is to lead mankind into freedom and the core value of education is supported by freedom. Returning back to the cave, released man will have to decide which world to choose as real. Would he or she be happy in comparison to the other prisoners who have not yet seen outside of the cave. And here Socrates clarifies to Glaucon whether he or she will try to free the rest of people and explain them about the world outside. In this situation every human is free to draw their own selections and apply their  own substance for life; nonetheless, the choices men make are what they believe all human beings to do, causing men to be responsible for their activities. All men have a moral responsibility to their fellows. The escaped prisoner is responsible for passing away back and informing the rest of the captives of what he witnessed. He has to explain to them that the ultimate reality is not the phantoms along the rampart, but what is seen once you’re in the light. He then experiences anguish because the prisoners will not trust him. Every man suffers anxiety they have freedom and at the same time bear great amount of responsibility for all people. Therefore every choice that a man makes should be honest and responsible. Connection of freedom and responsibility with education is crucial in the contemporary world. Allegory of the cave is simplified picture of what happens in our society Most of the modern educational institutions do not support freedom. Students can just like the prisoners be affected by the so-called puppeteers with wrong side of the reality. Process writing â€Å"An unjust law is no law at all† All people have equal right, it does not matter what race you are or how old are you or where you are from. All of us should have equal rights. I think that African-Americans should reach for their aim, aim not to be discriminated and to have equal right. That time they had strong desire to live in peace. Martin Luter King is a leader of African-Americans who struggle for African-Americans freedom. He is the great leader, because he want to reach freedom without violence. He was great thinker, because he did not start disorders in country, he just wanted to make economic withdrawal program. It shows that African-Americans had strong desire to be free, and desire to reach it without violence. Equality is not always justice EqualityJustice Equality as shown in the first picture is when all people get strictly the same things, no matter of their needs and possibilities. Equality in my opinion is not perfect, and does not take into consideration different  possibilities of different social classes which lead to the inequality in the society. What is justice? Justice – is a concept of rightness, which is based on ethics, law, religious and other aspects. In my opinion equality is not always justice. Every class of people should separately get help and benefits from government or administration. This picture above very well helps us to realize that justice and equality are different things. Most of us sometimes mix these two words. I also can give another example: Sometimes different organizations support orphans who need additional help from the society. If to equally treat them they will not get equal to other children, who have parents. This is because they will not be able in the same conditions afford parents immediately. While within the concept of justice, these children should get more benefits from government and different social organizations rather than usual children, who get care and support directly from their parents. La Jetee La Jetee is a science fictional movie filmed by Chris Marker in 1962 in France. Compounded almost from photos, it tells us about post 3rd world war and experiments with time travelling. From French La Jetee is translated runway, which is a place where planes take off. In the movie, people who survived after 3rd world war were living under destroyed Paris, and most of them were imprisoned criminals and prisoners of war. Scientists researched injection which could make humans mind to travel in time. They wanted to rescue the present and ask for help from future and past. They found an experimental who could mentally withstand the shock of time travel. Finally they found him, and he was a prisoner. They sent him to the past the his pre-war childhood where he saw a woman and a mystical murder on the observation platform. After several attempts, he could reach different period of his life. There he built a romantic relationship with the woman on the observation platform in his childhood. After this he was sent to the future, where he meet with the highly developed people of the future. They give him a power unit which is able to recreate his destroyed world. After all these, he returned back to his time, where he was sentenced to death. But the people of the future offer him to go with them; he refuses and asks them to send him to the past to his childhood, to meet his beloved woman, on  the observation platform. Finally, when he goes back to that time, to that platform, where he hopes to meet that woman, he will be killed by a person. He realizes that the murder which he saw as a child, was his own murder. What is common between Antigone and Allegory of the cave? These three works can be connected with three ideas. Idea of freedom, honesty and responsibility In both works we can see theme of freedom. It is freedom of choice. In Plato’s Allegory of the cave prisoner who was released have a choice to be enlightened or unenlightened and another choice to run away or to come back and tell every one the truth. In Sophocle’s work Antigone Kreon have a choice to change his law or to punish everyone who will break a law. The theme of honesty also presents here. Antigone was honesty with her king Kreon and tells him everything what she feels. She was against of king’s law because that law was unjust law. We can say that she was agree with St. Augustine’s phrase â€Å"unjust law is not law at all†. In Plato’s work prisoner was, who was released, honesty with his co-prisoners, he does not run away he come back and tell everything what he see outside of the cave. The last theme of our orientation week is responsibility. Prisoner in Plato’s work come back and tell everyone the truth. He want to show them another side of reality, with this action he shows us his responsibility for others â€Å"the truly free individual is the one who is experiencing guilty for everything around him†. And Antigone also was responsible. She brakes a law and bury his brother with all funerals. My poem about nature Hello, hello, hello, Listen to me dear all, I go to walk With my classmates And then I saw this beautiful vase. I was confused How beautiful it was This vase was huge in size But then I realize That I get behind I run away Back to my classmates It was pretty good To see this vase