Plato's Allegory Of Cave

Less than a hundred years ago, women in the United States and in many other parts of the world were not permitted to participate in politics: they were deemed inferior to men by nature of their gender. In spite of rampant sexism in modern society, the thought of women being unable to vote seems preposterous. The shift in consciousness that took place with the nineteenth amendment to the American Constitution reflects a similar consciousness breakthrough as Plato describes in his Republic. In The Republic, which was penned millennia ago, Plato presents a perennially popular metaphor: the general public is living as if in a cave, without access to direct sunlight and without contact with the outside world. The sunlight nevertheless creates shadows on the cave walls, shadows that the people mistake for reality. When one person ventures outside the cave, he or she realizes that the...
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