Knowledge Vs Opinion and Plato’s Allegory of Caves
The thin boundary between Knowledge and Opinion
The distinction between Episteme(Knowledge) and Doxa(Opinion) is closely related to Plato’s theory of Forms. To make this more vivid we ought to take an example:’’ Footballs are round”.According to the Theory of Forms, then footballs are not round, they are merely participating in the form of roundness. Indeed the statement “Footballs are round” is in sense a possible reflection of the reality of intelligible forms such as roundness. Only the form of “roundness” is truly round, everything else is just the reflection of “roundness”. The earthly things are just mere reflections of real reality. Those who believe that Footballs are actually round, they are not in the realm of knowledge but the realm of opinion.
Brief about “Allegory of the Caves”
The “Allegory of the Caves” states that there exist prisoners chained together in a cave. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners are people carrying puppets or other objects. This casts a shadow on the other side of the wall. The prisoners watch these shadows, believing them to be real. Plato posits that one prisoner could become free. He finally sees the fire and realizes the shadows are fake. This prisoner could escape from the cave and discover there is a whole new world outside that they were previously unaware of. This prisoner would believe the outside world is so much more real than that in the cave. He would try to return to free the other prisoners. Upon his return, he is blinded because his eyes are not accustomed to actual sunlight. The chained prisoners would see this blindness and believe they will be harmed if they try to leave the cave.
Symbolism in the Allegory
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is the concept devised to insight deeply into the nature of Opinion vs Knowledge. The allegory contains loads of forms of symbolism to instruct the masses in the nature of perception. The cave in which prisoners were trapped represents the superficial physical reality. The chains they have trapped in pictures the trap of ignorance which is stopping them to witness the true reality. The way the prisoners believe in the shadows of puppets shows the illusional opinion of them. The one prisoner who indeed crossed the fire and escaped is the symbolism of a wise person who gathers the knowledge of true reality. The sun he saw is the representation of true knowledge while the fire he witnessed as from its escape is the representation of false knowledge. The backtrack of that prisoner to the other prisoner in order to enlighten them with true knowledge and the denial of his knowledge by others on seeing the blindness of him is an outlook to the ignorance and stubbornness of the prisoners who captivates them to a false reality. This is an allegory of the life of all enlightened and wise people who get rejected by ignorance when they try to enlighten others. It is a metaphor carved to illustrate human ideologies, illusions, ignorance, and opinions. The cave is the prison for individuals who support their knowledge based on ideologies and opinions. The masses are stubborn and ignorant and dedicate their lives to pursue shadows instead of the real thing. It is intended that we must traverse out of the state of ignorance into a true field of knowledge. We must break the chains of ignorance and witness the sun.
Is Plato’s theory convincing?
Every theory does have its divergence as well as convergence points. It fails on one part but also succeeds in another part. Plato’s theory also comes up with its own convergence and divergence points. Plato insists that there exists an eternal, perfect, and immaterial form of physical objects. The properties of physical objects such as beauty, roundness, etc explain how a person can recognize particular things as belonging to a universal idea, even if those particular things are imperfect reflections of their universal form. This can be seen as a convincing theory of knowledge. Plato’s rationalism does reject the ever-changing physical world as a source of knowledge. Instead, he proposed that knowledge is to be found in the pure consciousness of the Forms. The Forms, however, do not provide a convincing theory of knowledge. There is no evidence that there exists a realm of Forms. Plato’s Forms are unverifiable. There must be a solution to the problems of relativism that are based on a scientific, verifiable view of the world.
