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Allegory Of Cave In Plato's Republic

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Allegory Of Cave In Plato's Republic
PLS 325 Ancient Political Theory
Sagynysh Yeltayeva
10/10/15
Reading response on “Republic” (Book 7)
In Book 7, Socrates presents the famous metaphor – allegory of cave. The metaphor demonstrates the influence of education on a human soul. People see shadows of statues in the dark place and believe these figures to be real. This shows people’s lowest stage on the Socrates’ line – imagination. When a prisoner is unchained, blinded with the light of fire, within the time he sees that indeed shadows are reflections of statues. This is where belief is represented - he sees the link and percepts this to be real. Finally, the person is taken out of the cave and, blinded within the sunlight, later he sees the real world: real trees, flowers, animals,

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