Platon, Cave Myth and Reality

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A few centuries ago in the ancient Greek philosophy "What is the truth?" was a trend topic. During this period Plato was one of those who were looking for answers. According to Plato's view there are two worlds. Reality and the world of ideals. Reality is a distorted copy reflected in the world of ideals. Plato shows the cave example for this.

A group of people are chained in the cave and a fire is burning behind them. They are prisoners here for life. At the point of view there are only the shadows created by the light of fire and the wall they reflect. This is the whole reality of these people. But one day, one of the imprisoned prisoners breaks their chains and leaves the cave. It meets the real daylight. Their eyes cower in the face of the truth, but this dazzle turns them into astonishment after they have seen it. Plato even said, "If you keep telling them, they will catch and kill you." he says. People hate those who tell the truth.

If we open the metaphors in this example:

Chained prisoner to the cave: the individual who is part of society
Cave: Society itself
Chain: The legal, religious and moral rules that limit the individual within society and force him to enter certain patterns,
Shadows: The falsified truths that are defined and adopted by society in the framework of these rules

So Plato says that there is a world of thought that is independent of the world we live in. And everything in this world takes the essence of ideas from the world. Because everything is a bad copy of the world of ideas. So if we say a table for a table, if we call it its definition and its existence as a board, it is because of the table idea. The cave example of Platon means that people will have fun and spend their lives with their own shadows. But the philosopher gets out of the chains and out of the cave. And he sees the truth. At first, truth hurts his eyes. But then he feel in admiration for the beauty of truth. He want to go back and tell the public, but they will not believe him, even they will kill him if he will insist. This is really pathetic for society.

There was always this loop. In different geographies of the world, different philosophers were murdered or excluded because they were telling the truth, defending their own ideas. Societies are inclined to continue to function in the present order. Because if there is a fake, there is order. Facts and innovation scare society, so always tried to hinder reforms. People kill their saviors to protect their killers. Fear is such a thing. The person who is afraid of the facts is not free. He's a prisoner chained by lies...

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