Plato

5 Pages 1265 Words

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Black Elk’s “The Great Vision” each make a case for a particular way of knowing through a vision or higher realm. Black Elk describes a far more detailed version of his own vision as a young child. His experience provides a way of knowing the spiritual world. Plato describes a man imprisoned in a cave who finds a way of knowing and understanding the world through an enlightening experience. Both authors share similar ideas of gaining knowledge at a higher level, but smaller details of their writings show the differences in their positions.
In “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato created a metaphoric story beginning at the far end of a cave, a long way from the outside world where men had lived since childhood with their legs and necks tied up in a way that kept them in one place and only allowed them to look straight ahead. Further up the cave, a fire was burning which allowed minimal lighting. There was a wall between the fire and the men, behind which people carried all sorts of artifacts. The men were only able to see shadows of these artifacts. They did not have any knowledge of definite objects.
One of the men was untied and dragged into the sunlight. After his eyes adjusted to the light, he feasted his eyes “on the heavenly bodies and the heavens themselves.” He was told he was now closer to reality and was seeing more accurately. When the man saw the sun, he deducted that it was “the source of the seasons and the yearly cycle that the whole of the visible realm is its domain.” Plato called the upward journey the mind’s ascent to the intelligible realm. “In the realm of knowledge is goodness” which is responsible for everything that is right and fine and “is the source and provider of truth.”
Plato deducted that after visiting the higher realm, one would not want “to engage in human business” in the lower realm because his mind would rather be in the upper regi...