Plato and The Allegory of the Cave

The primary theme of Plato's Allegory of the Cave, is mankind's perception of reality. Plato was one of the founding theorists for the idea of the soul, the realm of ideas/forms and the philosophy of Neo-Platonism. Plato argued that the things we see and perceive are products of our experiences and understanding of what is presented to us. Whether or not what we see or experience is the truth, it is what we understand. This is what happens to those watching the shadows. The shadows are an image of something true, but is not truth itself. What he encourages his readers to do, is look beyond the world of nature (the wall with shadows), and towards the sources of perception (the realm of ideas and rationality). Once one is able to do that, they have the potential of going "outside" and seeing "the one," the real truth in the world. we might be blinded by the light at first, but if we allow ourselves the proper patience, we will see what is outside of our mind set and frames created by the cave. The hard part, after one realizes and learns some of the greater truth is convincing the others left in the cave, for they are content in their ignorance.

Fight Club is a film mentioned earlier in this course, but this time Edward Norton's character will be used with his views of reality and perception. His character, we find out later (spoiler alert!), is schizophrenic to a certain degree. His alter personality becomes his close companion, and through him he learns the basic elements of the human character and society. He has to put certain evidences into context though as he realizes his own new world and life that has revealed so much to him has falsities in itself. He has to conquer his alter personality, and becomes enlightened on another level than what he had started out as. Like the allegory of the cave, Norton broke away from the chains and started learning the elements that were making the shadows in his culture. he realized that there was more than just this though, stepped outside and figured out he was two people in one body.