Plato's Cave Metaphor And Its Philosophical Significance

In the "Republic",Plato proposed the conception of"metaphor of the caves ".It claims that the “inside” and the “outside” described in the allegory,which means one can keeps his relation with the world and can also know about the it.The light and the image are the fundamental of the prisoners' survival,because of this,the prisoners can live in the caves where they feel free.The truth is light and image instead of the fire in the cave to be man-made." The lights are some opinions which are the fundamental of the caves,so are the prisoners.They believe these opinions.However,once the prisoners see the fire that someone do it on purpose,they do not believe those any more.At the some time,they will turn around and look for the real truth which is the direction oh the soul.Whereas,it is not an easy thing.Only through education can they find the correct direction.The key is education.People accept themselves' minds in pursuing lust.By educating do prisoners obtain the freedom.In this process,one can keeps his soul away from the real world.When the prisoners go out of the waves,where are their destination? Comparing the metaphor of the cave with the metaphor of line and sun,the conclusion is the world one can feel.There are close connection between the metaphor of sun,metaphor of line and metaphor of the cave.There are a lot of conceptions in the idea world,the important one is goodness.there are close connection between the cave inside and outside.The cave is an entirety.The prisoner go out of the caves and come to the world of concept.After he turns to be kind,he will return to the original life of the cave to teach the other prisoners in the cave,which is not easy,he is used to living in the outside world.When returning to the caves,he is not comfortable.His eyes may be burned and even he may be killed by other prisoners.He knows it is dangerous to be back,but he insists on it.This is the feeling of a philosopher.As a result,the prisoners who back to the cave should be used to the previous life.After he can handle with this easily.He will reach a high level.The whole process of "metaphor of the cave" is a process that how to become the a philosopher king."The metaphor of cave" have a significant impact to the Western world such as Aristotle,Augustine,Hegel and so on.