The ‘Allegory Of The Cave’ philosophical theories are widely accepted. This theory is not even applicable to real life situations, but also is applied in films as well as books. This theory was made by Plato, who makes a distinction between two groups of people: one group who falsely mistakens sensory knowledge for the truth and one group who finds the actual genuine truth. There are many objects in this theory that represent this. To begin, the cave in this allegory represents being surrounded by misunderstanding and not being able to see the truth easily. This is portrayed by the three prisoners in the cave who cannot see anything but the stonewall ahead of them. They are also tied to rocks so they cannot get up - representing that they are stuck in the midst of misunderstanding. Next, the shadows represent the perceptions of those who believe that sensory knowledge is the way to the truth. The prisoners in the cave can see shadows on the wall, but they cannot properly identify them because they are simply just shadows and shadows aren’t that detailed or precise. They play a game to represent this, where the prisoners would guess which shadow would appear next. If they were correct, the prisoners praised the correct one, calling them smart and a master. However, this game contrasts greatly with the escape of one of the prisoners, who goes out and sees the real world. He compares it to what he thought the real world was through the shadows, identifying the two worlds as two different places. Indeed, he declares that the guessing game was useless and he’s able to experience the truth of the real world, not necessarily just through his senses but with his whole being and intellect. For example, he is able to finally experience the sun, which represents truth and knowledge. In this way, Plato alludes to his theory that relying purely on our senses for the truth can give us false realities. Plus, when we are in false realities, it is hard to escape them as clearly displayed by the return where the prisoner who escapes tells the truth of reality to the prisoners who are falsely informed of the reality they lived in through their game. Indeed, they didn’t like being told that they were wrong and are scared of admitting that and gaining the real truth. Perhaps this alludes to the fact that as people we hate criticism and hate being told we are wrong, but maybe that is the best way for us to grow and become more knowledgeable in life.
In Pericles’ Funeral Oration, Pericles’ gave insight into the ideals of democracy, bringing up some very important points. He wrote this speech to emphasize the greatness of Athens, hoping that in effect, the people of Athens would support the war and keep fighting for democracy as well as freedom. Commemorating those who died in battle was also a major component of this speech as he wanted people to know that dying while in battle is honorable and much better than dishonor and humiliation of not fighting. In fact, the dead are idealized, they sacrificed their life for their love of their country, giving them eternal glory and fighting for the right reasons (for other people to be happy through the gain of freedom). Through all of this, we are able to learn a lot about democracy. To begin, democracy is a system like no other. While people usually are usually stagnant in their social class due to their wealth and or inheritance, democracy allows people to move in social class based on their merit. The people get to decide what social class they want to be a part of - giving the people more freedom and ultimately more power in their life. Secondly, Pericle notes that the citizens who live in democracy behave lawfully but also have the freedom to be happy and live their life without the fear of being severely punished - providing them more freedom. This doesn’t mean that they’re going crazy, but that they are following the laws but still doing what’s best for them, allowing them to live happy lives. Thirdly, Pericle states that under a democracy there is equal justice for all during argumentation. With these points, Pericle is effectively able to change the word “democracy” to have more of a positive connotation versus a negative connotation that it previously had by displaying to people how good and freeing democracy has the potential to be.
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