Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Argumentative Paper: Plato's Allegory of the Cave

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February 27, 2012

Introduction

In the following paragraphs I will be defending my perception and interpretation of the Plato's Allegory of the Cave in the context of the Information Age. My goal is to demonstrate how is that Plato's insight about knowledge and freedom is still actual but under different environmental conditions. Despite the fact that we live in a world where free education for all is part of the political campaigns both in the East and in the West, many citizens of the world have actually a distorted and partial understanding of the most important issues that affect society. It is clear that no human can have a complete understanding of all the facts and circumstances that are going on in the world, however I claim that there is a set of basic knowledge that needs to be part of the awareness of everyone for the purpose of living better and improving the conditions of the present and future generations.

Reflection

The premise that is contained in the allegory of the cave is that without proper access to knowledge, there are no conditions for freedom. As the common phrase says “there's no one more enslaved that he who believes is free”. We can not know everything, but we also don't need to know everything. We don't need to know how do ants organize their societies and thrive in the wild in order to be free, at least on an essential level. Therefore it is certain knowledge that is critical for our freedom. In the allegory of the cave the knowledge that is missing is very tangible , its very objective and can be defined easily. In reality (out of the allegory) the knowledge that sets us free is not printed in a book or contained in the school programs. This knowledge is an abstract entity that is not easily defined, it is both subjective and objective, it is both the result of our interaction with the world and our personal, inner reflection. Each person needs a different “area” of knowledge to be free, however, since we live in a society there are some areas of knowledge that are of vital importance for all of us and that should be part of the education programs to aid the individuals to achieve freedom.

The controversy starts when we try to define which contents and skills are those that are most necessary. In the allegory of the cave what the individuals need is to increase their knowledge of their immediate reality, to experience the sun and the colors, the textures and the open spaces, etc. In this sense, they need to increase the reach of their senses. In a way, all