Explain Plato’s Analogy of the Cave. (25 Marks)

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represents the World of Forms. The sun shapes the outside world so sun represents the Form of Good. This analogy illustrates the sun as source of the other Forms. In the analogy sun sustains all the living things in the world above ground. The fire in the cave is a superficial sun. The fire only gets the energy from wood which comes through the energy of sun. Plato believes the true knowledge can only be found in the world of forms. The knowledge that comes through the five senses cannot be true as the physical world is constantly changing.

Plato realizes the soul is imprisoned and it can only escape through discovering the reality and becoming a philosopher. He also believes that philosophers should have the authority to rule the world as they seek for the true reality. Plato suggests that it is the duty of the prisoner to go back to the cave and teach the rest of the prisoner about reality. As the prisoner enters the cave he is unable to see. This illustrates the difficulties of seeing the Forms within the world. He explains to other prisoners about the reality. However, the rest of the prisoners are not convinced with what he says. The other prisoner laughs at his talk of life above ground. The other prisoners would kill the released prisoner if they could. Plato shows that the rest believe in the traditional way of life. The statement of prisoner killing the released prisoner refers to the death of Socrates. Plato directly links this to the death of his teacher Socrates. Socrates was one with a different view and inspired a lot of new generations in Greek. For this reason he was sentenced to death, leading him to suicide through drinking poison.

In conclusion, Plato uses this analogy of cave to demonstrate about the world of forms. The analogy raises issues of who is most suitable to rule society and about the state in which people exist.