Plato's conception of reality

Plato addressed the issue of change by making a distinction between the imperfect material world and the changeless world of forms. This world, the world of the senses, is subject to change, but it is only the shadow of the changeless world of forms. Plato presented this idea graphically in the allegory of the cave in The Republic, where the shadows on the walls represented the imperfect likeness of the perfection of the real objects, much as the real world in which we live is only a reflection of the world of forms:

Imagine the condition of men living in a sort of cavernous chamber underground with an entrance open to the light and a long passage all down the cave.

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tions. All that they actually see are shadows, but they believe those shadows are reality. The prisoners could only recognize the shadows as reality. However, steps could be taken to reach toward reality, such as standing and looking about the cave. The Republic itself can be read as a the search for an ideal and for the meaning of reality, in this case Plato's ideal of a society without strife, and there is no guarantee that he will attain this ideal. To understand this idea of the ideal versus what can be attained, the philosopher must return to the cave. There is danger in this enterprise, however, for the philosopher who has ascended to the surface to see more than the average would return to tell others of what he had seen and would find that he was not believed. The philosopher serves as one who can force others to see: And suppose someone were to drag him away forcibly up the steep and rugged ascent and not let him go until he had hauled him out into the sunlight. . . He would, then, need to grow accustomed before he could see things in that upper world. This is a danger to the philosopher because of what happens to those who return to tell others: They would laugh at him and say that he had gone up only to co
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1651
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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