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It seems one of the most famous exerts of Plato s The Republic is the one of the cave. In my History class we watched a video on over Plato s book and a major portion was about the cave metaphor. The sections that lead up to this metaphor play a major part in understanding what Plato means by telling this story through Socrates. The main theme that leads up to the cave is that everything that we see is just a reflection of some perfect idea. For instance when we see a tree, Socrates says that its not really a tree but a reflection of what our idea of what a tree is. An example, would be that when someone who studies Geometry looks at a circle they don t dwell on if it is a perfect circle they just say it is a circle, because that is the reflection of what their idea of a circle is.
Therefore when the prisoners of the cave see the shadows of the real world that is the only perception of the world. Since they can t perceive anything else the shadows are the reflection of their ideas of what the real world is. It takes the concept of everything being a reflection of one perfect world and simplifies it. This in my opinion is what the main theme is however I also see another relation to earlier ideas and the cave metaphor.
During the metaphor, Socrates address that if one of the prisoners were to get free and see the outside world they would have a hard time adjusting. This is because seeing the light and the outside world goes against everything that they believe from seeing and learning from the shadows his entire life. The major concept here is that it takes time for him to adjust to the reality outside the cave, and its not something that he can adjust to right off. Then Plato goes on to write that when the prisoner goes back to the cave and tries to tell the others the don t want to hear it because it goes against what they have been accustomed to their entire life.
I think the relation here is in reference to that people have trouble adjusting to ideas that go against their beliefs. That is why they must be taught at an early age the truth and not have to adjust later on.
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Research essay sample on Main Theme Entire Life
