Plato’s Cave Allegory and Metaphysics
Plato’s allegory is a good example that shows how different views of the world can create different perceptions of reality. What is real to me might not necessarily be something that you believe in. It is a concept that tells you that what we experience in lives is what drives our beliefs in reality. If an individual has not seen something, it does not make any sense to explain its existence. To better explain this concept, the example of the government, media and the common man has been used. Plato’s metaphysical views have also been compared to Aristotle’s views in the second part of this paper.
PLATO’S CAVE ALLEGORY IN TODAY’S WORLD
Just like, the individuals in Plato’s allegory who were chained in the caves and tied to the chairs so that they could see nothing but the shadows on the wall of the cave, the television sets that we have in our homes serve the same purpose. People watch what is shown on the television without trying to see anything beyond what is shown on the screens. The media and the government broadcast videos and shows on the TV; they serve as the puppet-handlers who form shadows on the cave walls for the prisoners to see. The common man (who are the prisoners in Plato’s allegory) is seeing what is shown on the TV (cave walls) by the media and the government (puppet-handlers).
In today’s high-tech era, it is so easy to get all the information we want at our finger tips. Computers, cell phones, TV and internet serve the purpose of playing the cave walls for us. We don’t try to get to the reality but start to believe what we see through the media. For example, if we look at the Aarushi murder case mystery (popular case in India) where a girl named Aarushi was murdered by the son of a well-known political leader, we can see how the world was blinded from reality by the media and the government. Aarushi was a bar tender, and was murdered by the son of a high profile political leader. Tarun (son) and his group of friends were so drunk at the bar, that they killed Aarushi as she refused to serve another drink as the bar was closed. The friends, who thought that they were the rulers, and no one could deny them anything, got furious as Aarushi when she did not serve them a drink. The argument lasted for a while, until Tarun took his gun out, and shot Aarushi in her head. The reality that these friends grew up with was that they were very powerful and there was nothing that they could not get. The high status and the political background of their family created this concept of reality for them.
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Aarushi’s family filed a case against Tarun and his group of friends. Since Tarun was a son of a political leader, every effort was made to save him. The father did not want to lose his image and position by having his son proven guilty. Therefore, the political leaders who belonged to the father’s coalition tried everything to save Tarun. Thus began a cascade of events that painted a totally different picture of reality. Tarun’s father bribed everyone who was present in the bar the night this event happened. Those who refused the bribery were threatened to say that they did not see any murder. This situation is similar to the freed men in Plato’s allegory who leave the cave and walk into the light (truth), but still ignore the truth. Aarushi’s case also led to the media showing a different picture of reality. The media under the influence of politics showed that Aarushi was not murdered by Tarun. Instead they, showed that the night when this event happened, Tarun was in another state enjoying a vacation with his friends. They showed fraud evidence of flight tickets and hotel reservation. All this was shown in the media, and thus the common man was forced to believe something that wasn’t the truth. This is similar to Plato’s allegory where the puppet handlers (government and media) show the shadows to the prisoners (common man) and make them believe that the shadows are the reality (Tarun was not present in the bar).
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However, similar to Plato’s allegory where a man is freed and allowed to see the reality of the shadows, one person in Aarushi’s case saw the fraud. This was Aarushi’s lawyer who tracked down the events that happened that night, and found that Tarun was actually the murderer. This situation is similar to the freed man in Plato’s allegory who came back to free the rest of the prisoners. Aarushi’s lawyer got to the truth and tried to open the eyes of all those people who were masked by the media and government. This is a good example of Plato’s allegory as it serves to show how what we see can sometimes be just an illusion.
PLATO V/S ARISTOTLE
Plato and Aristotle differed in their concept of metaphysics. Both had different ideology. Firstly, Plato believed in the existence of an ideal world beyond our own physical world. He believed that the ideal world exists beyond our physical world, and the impurities and imperfections that are in our physical world have been copied from the ideal world. On the other hand, Aristotle believed that our world is natural and real. The world that we live in is the reality, and there is nothing like an ideal world.
Another concept from Plato’s theory is the idea of resemblance of two objects. Plato says that two objects look similar due to their cooperative contribution in a common form. For example, a black pen and a black cat resemble each other by being copies of the form of black. According to Plato, both resembled the same form (black) and thus were similar. I think that this is very unexplainable, because if this theory of Forms was to be true, then everything that is black would be a cat, or everything that is black would be a pen. Aristotle on the other hand believed that the goodness of the forms (in this example the form is black) is determined on their use and not on their resemblance.
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In my opinion, the main difference between Plato’s theory of reality and Aristotle’s metaphysics was their basis on ideology. Plato’s ideology was based on intuition, whereas Aristotle’s ideology was based on a scientific method of judgment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to say that Plato’s Cave Allegory serves as a good example for the common man to keep an open mind. We need to learn to be able to look at both sides of a coin, and not make decisions based on what is shown to us. The reality might be completely different from what it appears to be. Also, we must learn to share our knowledge with others and enlighten them. Knowledge that is shared is worth the knowledge gained.
