POL113H5 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1&2: Antoine Destutt De Tracy, John Stuart Mill, Hermeneutics
Document Summary
The cave: the illusion and the reality of education. Plato"s cave - insightful allegory about the dangers of domination and oppression, as well as the equally perilous potentials of education and liberation. The allegory by plato represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality. The thesis behind his allegory is the basic tenets that all we perceive are imperfect reflections of the ultimate forms, which subsequently represent truth and reality. In his story, plato establishes a cave in which prisoners are chained down and forced to look upon the front wall of the cave. The prisoners are bound to the floor and unable to turn their heads to see what goes on behind them. To the back of the prisoners, under the protection of the parapet, lie the puppeteers whom are casting the shadows on the wall in which the prisoners are perceiving reality.
