plato's cave analogy

[arcanum]

I think plato's cave analogy demonstrates very effectively a great truth: that people do not comprehend truth directly but are chained to their own conditioned perceptions and filters. There is so much division in the world of religion because we take the shadows on the wall to be real when they are mere representations. We think our perception of truth is the truth, but it's not, it's only a fragment of the truth. There are very few who can escape because most don't even know they are chained to begin with and are oblivious to a much bigger world out there. discuss

[youtube]69F7GhASOdM[/youtube]
The Cave: An Adaptation of Plato's Allegory in Clay - YouTube

 

[Gjallarhorn]

Being able to embrace reality without filters is a lot more complicated than a one-time unchaining. It's more like walking through a briar patch and constantly having to pull the branches and thorns off.

 

[elmarna]

While awareness is formed in our opinions & perception.
Truth remains a concept of something that can not be manifested but realized with no 1 argueing it's validity!
when all things fall into the water they get wet. That is a truth.
While we may say what the water is ,or where it comes from, or even what to do with it. It still does not take away the fact that water makes things wet.
So as beliefs are formed in the opinions, feelings, and how we live in our world the open mind willing to accept and consider that those around them speaking may just let them see a way to realize beyond their world and uncover so many truths that may been left hidden.
I am not without the great statement "-if I cut you do you not bleed like me!"
A modern opinion is that it can not be held as a truth if it is a man with a artificial appendege. Or a cybernetic man. That would not take away the truth that humans bleed. It would maintain that the truth that humans bleed id indeed there & in the realities that which does not bleed is no longer human in the original form or human at all.

 

[9-10ths_Penguin]

One thing I've noticed about Plato's Cave: when someone brings it up in order to argue that they're the ones who have seen the light beyond the cave, it usually makes more sense to believe that they're just seeing dancing shadows on the cave wall.

... either that or they've misinterpreted carbon monoxide-induced hallucinations as meaning that they've left the cave.

 

[elmarna]

GOOD POINT - 9-10ths Penguin!

 

[arcanum]

One thing I've noticed about Plato's Cave: when someone brings it up in order to argue that they're the ones who have seen the light beyond the cave, it usually makes more sense to believe that they're just seeing dancing shadows on the cave wall.

... either that or they've misinterpreted carbon monoxide-induced hallucinations as meaning that they've left the cave.

I didn't claim I have seen the light beyond the cave but I believe it sheds light on the human condition and I think to see beyond that which appears on the surface is a possibility but attained only by a few. But you are right that there are many who claimed to see the light but it was only more dancing shadows.