Subject name: First year seminar

Subject name: First year seminar

Student name: Islamova Firuza
Tour-221 S
Plato was a Greek philosopher and founder of the Platonist school of thought. Plato’s allegory of the cave is considered to be one of the most famous and reviewed metaphors in the history of philosophy. Allegory (derives from a Greek word “allegoria” meaning to describe differently, irony or parable) is the way of representation of artistic images, abstract notions or ideas through certain objects, events and incidents. The story of the cave is mostly an example of how a man, if he wants, has to go through a tedious journey. For the Greek philosopher all of us live like freed prisoners of the cave. With the story of the cave, Plato tries to explain how a man, who has approached the highest planes of knowledge, the real source of light, in this case when he approached the Sun is trying to reason about it. Plato’s allegory of the cave teaches to see the Truth as it is. This allegory is needed for a man to approach the Truth and to self-educate himself. This need is not confined to the obtaining of knowledge, but teaches to come back to the cave, as the prisoner did in the story and guide his friends to the highest degrees of knowledge. Many modern authors and philosophers believe that the allegory of the cave can be used always and its timeless nature makes it practical even in present day. The chained people in the cave are the hardships on the way to reach intellectual spirit and support it.
Plato says that “the spiritual way is painful and hard” and we need to pass four stages on way of our development:

1. Imprisonment in the cave (in the imaginary world);
2. Freeing from chains (real emotional world);
3. Departure from the cave (the world of ideas);
4. Way of helping your companions.