Platos The Republic Analysis of the Chapter Entitled...

One of the world’s most revered philosophers, Plato, was born in 428 BC. As a young man, Plato, became a devout student of Socrates. Plato quickly adopted Socrates’ teachings and turned his studies toward the question of virtue and noble character. After the execution of his beloved mentor, Plato founded the first English university called the Academy. He wanted thinkers to have a place were they could word toward better government for Greek cities. Over the duration of his life Plato wrote many books, and his most influential work is The Republic. Out of The Republic comes a chapter entitled â€Å"Allegory of the Cave†.(â€Å"Plato†) Plato’s Allegory of the Cave describes ignorance and the process of enlightenment. The cave symbolizes a†¦show more content†¦With this new enlightenment, the mind must learn to accept the new reality as an individual and move forward with this new found freedom. In the 1999 film The Matrix, ideas that Pla to presented in the â€Å"Allegory of the Cave† resurfaced as the story line of this film. In the film there are two worlds. A virtual reality and a true reality. Just as cave dwellers in the Allegory know of only one reality, the inhabitants of the virtual reality(the matrix) know of only one world, even though that world does not even truly exist. All the experiences a person has in the matrix are only a mental representation of what they believe to be happening, similar to the cave dwellers’ belief that the shadows presented before them were actually real. The matrix is a mental bondage that has been placed on the entire population of human beings just as Plato’s chains and shackles represented the mental bondage of the cave dwellers. Escaping the matrix was painful, just as entering the sunlight for the cave dwellers. Comprehending the new world outside the matrix was the equivalent of comprehending the world outside the cave. Once free of the bondage of the matrix, a person can be lead to the door of acceptance of the this new reality; however just as the cave dwellers, a person has to walk through the door at one’s own will.(The Matrix) Today many people live a â€Å"fantasy world† that has no true basis in reality. People