2008 Woodie Awards
The Flame in Plato's Cave
Plato's allegory still carries relevance.
Issac Stolzenbach
Issue date: 4/29/05 Section: Opinions
Ya'know, I had a tough time deciding what approach I should take in writing my last article as an undergraduate at Rollins College. Should I dig into the pith and dredge-up the negative aspects of Rollins in an attempt to wipe those Panglossian-grins off the uninformed-faces I see across campus, or take the greater challenge, and make the vain attempt to say something inspirational...
While working on my graduate school admissions essay, I came across a pretty cool/terrifying analogy: putting Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from Book VII of The Republic, in modern terms:
Plato presents his audience with a simile where the whole of society is analogous to a cave. Within this cave, citizens are bound by the throat, hands, and feet to the floor (viz. A Clockwork Orange during the "reprogramming" scene sans toothpicks); forced to witness and accept what is put before them as Truth. Inside Plato's cave there are lines of people shackled to the floor, forced to face one direction, shadows appear on the wall in front of them.
Behind the people lay a fire and a roadway above the exit from the cave, where "they" (in this context "they" refers to the hegemonic entities that control the means of production and economy, or more informally . . . they, the powers that be) walk back and forth in front of the fire with wooden cutouts. The action of people walking across the roadway with cutouts in front of the fire casts shadows on the wall in front of the citizens bound to the floor.
The interesting point here is that while "they" march back and forth along the roadway holding up a wooden cutout of a donkey, for instance, they shout out that the symbol is an elephant. The fire projects the image of a donkey to the society bound to the floor, but what the marchers of the roadway tell the citizens is that they are looking at an elephant. Behind the bound individuals lay the exit from the cave, which emits a soft light. Though arguable, I believe the light in Plato's cave represents the light of knowledge.
While working on my graduate school admissions essay, I came across a pretty cool/terrifying analogy: putting Plato's Allegory of the Cave, from Book VII of The Republic, in modern terms:
Plato presents his audience with a simile where the whole of society is analogous to a cave. Within this cave, citizens are bound by the throat, hands, and feet to the floor (viz. A Clockwork Orange during the "reprogramming" scene sans toothpicks); forced to witness and accept what is put before them as Truth. Inside Plato's cave there are lines of people shackled to the floor, forced to face one direction, shadows appear on the wall in front of them.
Behind the people lay a fire and a roadway above the exit from the cave, where "they" (in this context "they" refers to the hegemonic entities that control the means of production and economy, or more informally . . . they, the powers that be) walk back and forth in front of the fire with wooden cutouts. The action of people walking across the roadway with cutouts in front of the fire casts shadows on the wall in front of the citizens bound to the floor.
The interesting point here is that while "they" march back and forth along the roadway holding up a wooden cutout of a donkey, for instance, they shout out that the symbol is an elephant. The fire projects the image of a donkey to the society bound to the floor, but what the marchers of the roadway tell the citizens is that they are looking at an elephant. Behind the bound individuals lay the exit from the cave, which emits a soft light. Though arguable, I believe the light in Plato's cave represents the light of knowledge.