PHL 201 Final: Metaphysics and Epistemology of the Cave
12 May 2016
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Document Summary
Plato"s allegory presents our predicament in two ways: one metaphysical, the other epistemological. First, the allegory gives some broad hints about plato"s theory of reality- his metaphysics. Metaphysics is the branch of philosophy concerned with questions about the nature of reality, questions about what kinds of things are real and what are not. Plato describes two realms of being, a world of appearances and a world of realities. There is the dark underground where we are imprisoned, and where everything is only illusion, but there is also the bright sunlit realm outside the cave, filled with realities about which the prisoners know nothing. There are two metaphysical realms: the shadowy world of appearances and the sunlit realities. Inside the cave we dwell among appearances, the shadows of things and the echoes of sounds. Plato believes we are like the prisoners in his allegory because we also live in a world of appearances and mistake it for reality.
