Plato's Allegory of the Cave Research Paper

After all, Socrates tells Glaucon that if the prisoner who sees the sunlight were to venture back in the cave and break the news that the shadows on the wall were illusions, he would be killed. However, it is possible to enjoy the pleasures of the body without causing harm to the self or to others. The key is to acknowledge truth and wisdom.

Morgareidge suggests that collectivism can help with the mutual liberation that should ideally take place inside the cave. The prisoners can help each other to see the truth, represented by the sun in Plato's allegory, and then inspire each other to act ethically. "The walls of the cave and dungeons, whose solid appearance we now discover to have been produced by our own alienated labor, crumble, allowing us to perceive the light -- beauty and the good -- in a world of objects and activities designed by free human beings for the enjoyment of the most fully developed human capacities." The alternative ethic suggested by the cave allegory is one that values truth above all appearances. Furthermore, it is imperative that each person help fellow human beings to become liberated. It is an ethical obligation for an individual to help remove the chains of ignorance by always acting ethically and always speaking the truth. Then, it is important to lead each person away from the darkness and towards the light. Once each prisoner has been liberated, they can choose whether or not to wander outside the cave and abandon the shelter entirely or to go inside the cave for entertainment or for shelter.After all, the comforts of the cave shelter represent the pleasures of the material world that can never be fully denied.

The modern world requires an ethic that balances the material desires with spiritual ideals. A cave does offer shelter from the elements and is not a negative place in itself. However, being prisoner anywhere is an undesirable state. It is crucial to become self-aware and liberated. This requires the brutal reality that materialism cannot bring happiness. Once the individual embraces the truth that there is more to life than wealth, then he or she can go about treating others with kindness rather than as means to an end. When the person has been liberated by seeing the light, that person is free to build an ethic based on truth and not illusion.

Works Cited

Brown, Eric. "Plato's Ethics and Politics in the Republic." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2009. Retrieved online: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato-ethics-politics/

Cohen, S. Marc. "The Allegory of the Cave." Retrieved online: http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm

Morgareidge, Clayton. "Teaching Marx with Plato's Cave." Teaching Philosophy 11:3, September 1988 209. Retrieved online: http://legacy.lclark.edu/~clayton/papers/marx.html

Plato. "Allegory of the Cave." The Republic. Retrieved online: http://webspace.ship.edu/cgboer/platoscave.html

"Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Meaning and Interpretation." Retrieved online: http://www.buzzle.com/articles/Plato's-allegory-of-the-cave-meaning-and-interpretation.html.....