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Alexis Solis
English 120- 028

Julie Bryant
A World of Education
Education empowers not only is it about simply acquiring knowledge but it also plays
a crucial role in developing intellectually, politically and personally as an individual and as a
community. Education is highly valued in todays world in order to live a long and prosperous
life. In Platos passage of the Allegory of the Cave, he gives us an insight using symbolic figures
to express the importance to his readers of how vital education is to understand the world
around us, the nature of it and the huge need for it. In this essay I will go further into depth
using his actual piece and the Claymation, and explain how Platos philosophical message is
linked with education and how we as humans carry it on in life with us. I believe that Platos
message about education is that from what we gather and learn in this world, we can take on
and further our knowledge, if we choose to do so, if not then no knowledge can be gained.
Education is one of the most important elements that most of humanity values in order
to be able to survive and help our society to become more advanced and learn from one
another to prosper. When we speak of the philosophy of education, we refer to the
philosophical presuppositions in the human doing and making which is education. Education is
a moral science in so far as it applies norms; it is an art in so far as it is concerned with the
development, the remaking, of human nature. (Martin 232) From this quote, Martin is
basically telling us that the art of education will lead to the good life. Combining this and what

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Plato has purposed in the Allegory, is that we shall value what we are given in this world and
take advantage of how much knowledge we can acquire. It is the task of the enlightened not
only to ascend to learning and to see the good but to be willing to descend again to those
prisoners and to share their troubles and their honors, whether they are worth having or not.
And this they must do, even with the prospect of death. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato
separates the people who would mistake knowledge we acquire from our senses, from those
who actually know the truth and insight. We imagine a cave and in the cave there are 3
prisoners that are held captive and have been there their whole life, not knowing that there is
anything on the other side of those walls and a world far beyond their imagination. These
prisoners are tied down to where they cannot see anything but the wall in front of them, and
the fire behind them giving off shadows of people walking by with their animals or other
objects. At this moment we see that the cave represents the knowledge that we acquire from
what we see in the world. The shadows seen by the prisoners are images of those that believe
that we can learn from what see in the world and take that knowledge beyond that. It then
comes to the part where a prisoner is freed from the cave and goes out in the world and finds
truth and knowledge and uses his senses to perceive the world to gain a clearer understanding.
The prisoner goes to his other fellow prisoners to tell them the truth of the world and all that
he has seen, but they refuse to acquire anything that he says to them. Anyone who has
common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise
from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light Plato Allegory
of the Cave. (Plato) Plato shows that people such as the prisoners that stayed captive, refuse
to know the truth and gain a better knowledge of things around them.

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After reading Platos original piece, and then watching the Claymation video we can
begin to acquire a more visual understanding of what the cave, the prisoners, the fire and the
shadows can portray in the world outside of the cave. Both Platos work and the Claymation
together have shown us that in order to gain knowledge we must allow ourselves to acquire
what is around us. The prisoners show us that they cannot actually understand the world
outside because they have been chained since birth and are forbidden to leave. The only thing
that they can learn is what is brought right in front of them, which are only the shadows they
see and the noises they hear coming from behind them. Therefore, the prisoners are limited to
gaining knowledge. Now applying this with the real world, we are all given the opportunity to
go to school, become educated and prosperous. However, if we refuse to go to school, drop
out, or refuse to learn something in general, we have already limited ourselves from becoming
wise. We could either be limiting ourselves from education or we can also limit ourselves from
acquiring wisdom.
Symbolically, the one prisoner that is freed plays a huge role in understanding how one
can acquire knowledge. As the one prisoner is freed, he reaches euphoria seeing the bright
skies, sun, and the surrounding areas that he had never seen in his life before. He realizes that
he did not know anything at all, was ignorant and oblivious as to what really was outside of the
walls while chained in the cave. The prisoner then concludes that there is so much more to
gain, not only for himself but to help others. As I have previously mentioned, he goes back to
his other fellow prisoners and fills them in on what he has seen and learned. As tries to
communicate with them they do not know of what he speaks of or understand. The only
knowledge they know is set in the boundaries of the cave.

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In essence, what the Allegory of the Cave teaches and addresses to us, is that we must
not limit ourselves from learning from what world around us has for us to gain knowledge. I
believe that from learning one thing, we can build upon and create a ladder to reach greater
insight and understanding. Lastly, as a society we can further our knowledge by teaching and
trying to educate others so that we can advance as a society for years to come. Therefore
without education, wed be like the prisoners in the cave, having no knowledge to what
surrounds us and have nothing to gain.

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Works Cited
Martin, Oliver William. Philosophy of Education: Definitions of the Field, 1942-1982,
Educational Studies, 1985, 16, 3, 235 Hare, R. M. (1989) Plato On Education, Oxford:
Oxford University Press. 1989.
Bullhead Entertainment. The Cave: An Adaptation of Platos Allegory in Clay, Online
video clip. YouTube. YouTube, 18 Apr. 2008. Web. 10 Sep. 2014.
Plato, The Allegory of the Cave. The History Guide: Lectures on Modern European
Intellectual History. Kreis, Steven, 2000. Web. 10 Sep. 201