the cave is the

skull

the domicile

the

postal address

eyes

receiving stamps

on

the retinas

all

upside down

from

Blind Man's Bluff

in

monologue

and

their exodus

is

death is it not

or

another form

type

drafting out

of

bod experience

?

05.09.2023

Cave - Plato challenge @KatherineB

I'd like to compare the allegory of the Cave with Orwell's 1984 dystopia.

In the "Allegory of the Cave," the prisoners are essentially living in a simulated reality, where they are unable to see anything beyond the shadows projected onto the cave wall. They are unaware that there is a world outside of the cave, and they mistake the shadows for reality. Similarly, in "1984," the Party manipulates reality by rewriting history and controlling the information that is available to the public.

Both works deal the difficulty of discovering the truth. In the "Allegory of the Cave," Plato argues that only through education and enlightenment individuals can discover the truth beyond the shadows. Similarly, in "1984," Winston Smith, the main character, seeks to discover the truth about his world, but he is ultimately unable to do so. The Party's control over information and reality makes it nearly impossible for Winston to know what is true and what is not.

Furthermore, both works examine the nature of reality itself. In the "Allegory of the Cave," Plato uses the cave as a metaphor for the human condition, where individuals are unable to see beyond their own perspectives and must strive to gain knowledge in order to achieve enlightenment. Similarly, in "1984," the Party's manipulation of reality blurs the line between what is real and what is not, making it difficult for individuals to know what is true.

Both tell a story of a subjective reality, and a ignorant society, believing that their and only their worldview is right.

To me the allegory of the cave represents the base level of rationality. For one to be a realist he has to be able to break free from the confinement of the cave. The false perception of reality which one is presented with while being in the cave comes back to materialize itself and become one's true reality. Hence I use the term 'Boomerang of Reality'. Without freeing yourself from the shackles of the cave and seeing the source of the cave's 'perceived' reality in the bare flesh, one can never grasp the truth and can never learn what the real world has to offer. 'The death of fake reality reveals the truth of actual reality before one's eyes'. That's the best way I can sum it up. Now in terms of the cave's shackles one can argue that dogmatic beliefs or the indoctrination at birth is the main constituent of these shackles. Similarly the unanimously accepted societal beliefs and the pre defined 'acceptable' way of thinking are also shackles that bind us to the mouth of the cave. I consider understanding the allegory of the cave as the first and most important step in the path towards intellectualism and critical thinking, both of which are essential towards the completion of self actualization and the maximization of one's true potential!

The ideas portrayed in The Matrix have an uncanny connection to Plato's The Allegory of the Cave, a story that explores the difference between seeing knowledge through one's experiences versus the truth. People who have lived their lives forced into a position that only allows them to look at shadows on a wall know nothing beyond the cave they are bound to. As a result, they end up naming the shadows they see, and the shadows become their reality, their truth. People have a tendency to believe what they see and narrow-mindedly restrict their beliefs to what they establish to be "reality". At that point, even if the truth dances in their face with a mustache and top hat while doing backflips in the air, they remain so fixated on their own beliefs that they are blind to the truth. This concept reminds me of a saying I have once heard about how a goldfish who has only ever lived in a glass bowl wouldn't know how big the ocean is; and if I told it that a dingy little pond about two or three times the size of its bowl was the ocean, the goldfish would be none the wiser.

Now, back to The Matrix, a film that reveals the illusions of the mind and portrays the difference between a filtered, artificial reality versus a true reality. As seen in modern society today, humans believe what they choose to believe rather than what is true, allowing them to be chained down by their own minds. Similar to how the people of Plato's The Allegory of the Cave considered shadows to be their reality, Neo considered the "Matrix" to be his reality until his eyes were opened and he came to the realization that he was living in an AI simulation. Had Neo never encountered Morpheus, he would have remained in the simulated world, completely unaware that the world he was living in was a "fake".

In The Allegory of the Cave, Socrates goes on to explain how a person released from the cave and exposed to the sunlight will initially reject the new reality they are introduced to but then eventually learn to accept the truth and even prefer it over their previous view of the world. After explaining the truth about the Matrix to Neo, Morpheus offers a blue pill and a red pill to him. The blue pill would return Neo to his previous life of “normalcy” in the Matrix, a representation of mankind’s rejection of reality, while the red pill would take Neo deeper down the path of truth, a representation of acceptance. These ideals are often reflected in modern day politics, as many people who are stubbornly fixated on their personal beliefs refuse to listen to the truth; even when the truth is presented on a platter, overwhelmingly supported by scientific evidence and held together by layers of logic. On the other hand, those who are willing to open their eyes are presented with a new worldview that allows them to realize the power of the truth.

A line of people, in chains that have bound them their entire lives. They face a stone wall and a fire somewhere behind them casts shadows on the wall. They name those shadows. That one wall and the flickering shadows, themselves facing it, is their whole world.

If they could break their chains, they could turn around, to face reality. They can't describe the world behind them because in their minds there is no term that could be applied to it. Like them, we have chains enclosing us and a limited vocabulary. Just think--if we had only lived in a cold world, we would have no concept of warmth. We wouldn't know of it!

"A rose by any other name would smell as sweet" --Shakespeare

Things exist seperately from our conceptions of them. If we had no words, everything would exist just the same. And our words can't exhaust the universe--they never could.

"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."--Einstein

If we didn't have words, if we didn't have names for things, what would we think about them? What connections would we make?

The people in the cave know that they are bound in chains. Part of living in this world is realizing we can't understand everything. We're such small creatures in such a universe--galaxies IMMENSE more than we could ever realize! Even if we do know that the sun is at the center of our solar system, we didn't always.

Which brings up questions......how are we such complex organisms? How do we even have a name for the galaxies that stretch seemingly endlessly into space? How do we even have the concept of a god?

What can we learn about what we don't know from what we do?