Plato: Cave and the Universe

I found the cave allegory to be very interesting. People living in a cave wouldn't be able to see the actual images, but just the shadow of those images. By doing so, the images are distorted and they have a totally different view than those who don't live in the cave. To me, this parallels to a lot of different things in society. The cave can be a lack of knowledge that is changing you, or it can be the lack of a tool/instrument you need. Whatever it may be, the cave is altering reality for those people, and by doing so, it has become their reality and the truth to them. Then, when they are released from the cave, the see everything from the sun and all is different. They now see the images that they saw the shadows of, but it doesn't look the same. It is not what they know. They reject what is new because they believe what they saw in the past is the truth. It also happens vice versa, those going from light images to shadows.

One of Plato's general themes in that change is bad, and that is shown in the cave allegory. When the people are subjected to new images beyond shadows, they do not like it and don't accept it. Change is bad to the people in the cave and they'd much rather have the shadows back. This translates to people of our society. They can live in the dark for a while without a certain knowledge, for example that the earth is flat. This becomes truth to them and it is their reality, no matter what actually may be the case. Then, these same people are subjected to the evidence that the world is a sphere. This is so different than their reality, they can't accept it. People would much rather go back to their own self-truths, just like the humans of the cave.

Plato's universe is a very interesting one, and for much of his ideas he gives backing to. The first is that the world is actually a "living creature truly endowed with soul and intelligence by the providence of God." He makes the world an actual being, and Plato gives reasoning as to why it is a simple sphere, with no other markings of a living creature. It doesn't need eyes because there is nothing else for the world to see, no ears because there's nothing else for him to hear, and there are other reasons for no limbs and organs.

Plato also says that the whole world is made up of 4 elements; earth, wind, fire, and water. All though we do not agree with that today, there is a little agreement in the form of elements. Although we believe there are many more elements than 4, we do believe that the elements make up everything, just as Plato's elements did. We also agree with Plato on the idea of self-sustainability. He says that the "Creator conceived that a being which was self-sufficient would be far more excellent than one which lacked anything." Today, that is definitely agreed upon, as shown by Colgate's sustainability initiative. People are always striving to become more self-sufficient as that is a common goal, among countries as well. Plato's notion that self-sustainability is definitely a concept we agree with today.

One idea that is definitely not the same today is the view that "he made the world one whole, having every part entire, and being therefore perfect and not liable to old age and disease." So to Plato, the world was everlasting because it is perfect and therefore will never change. However, that is very contrary to popular belief. Our view is that the world will definitely reach the end of the road and fall victim to "old age or disease." The causes for this are unknown yet, but many people will probably point to global warming, or just deterioration of its lifetime. No matter what the reason, the earth will probably not stay "perfect", but will eventually have its downfall.