Plato’s world of illusions

So, you’ve probably recently embarked on the study of Plato’s Republic and you may have already touched on the famous ‘myth of the cave’ and how one singled out prisoner is freed from his physical shackles and ‘forced’ to make his way up the steep ramp of philosophical knowledge before emerging into the glorious world of ‘philosophical’ Truth, the only type of reality considered ‘real’, that is, ‘eternal’ for Plato.

The whole argument rests upon this symbolic contrast between the darkness of the cave associated with ignorance and the dazzling sun of the Good, standing for the ultimate form of ‘enlightenment’. It is easy to compare the prisoners fascinated by the projected images of artefacts on the wall of the cave with TV coach potatoes caught in their own world of illusions. In a similar way, try and draw a list of what, after some critical examination, appears to be, in your own experience, nothing but illusions, due to your own lack of discernment or possibly the result of your social and cultural environment.

You do not need to consult any other source but yourself for this first exercise in self-analysis. Good luck!