Socrates Essay - 1596 Words

Socrates believes that the everyday world is an illusion compared to the world of knowledge. People are often too distracted by money and materialistic things to appreciate truth and reality. Socrates says, â€Å"the capacity for knowledge is innate in each man’s mind.† This exemplifies the point that man has the ability to look into the world of truth, but when one is caught up in superficiality then truth does not receive the attention and glory that it should. This is why Socrates feels that the arts, such as poetry, should be censored; it would help decrease the digression of society’s intellect. In today’s world television and movies are complications that only hinder the thought processes in society.When people are consumed in the†¦show more content†¦Since the material world is simply an illusion of the world of knowledge, then television and movies are an illusion of this illusion. One cannot look to these for the answers, or even try to relate it to their own life. It is not real and should not be looked upon as truth. Although movies are an exaggeration of real life, it is not an exaggeration of â€Å"the good† but rather, of the emptiness and shallowness of life.The allegory of the cave illustrates the difference between the materialistic world and the intelligible world. Socrates describes a man with his arms and legs chained, and his neck in a brace, which only allows him to look at a wall with shadows. This is a metaphor for the man who does not transcend to the world of enlightenment. They can only see shadows of what is real and true. Man memorizes these shadows and thinks that he is intelligent; however, truth lies beneath the depths of the everyday world, but can only be established when the layers of immateriality are torn away. Another aspect of the cave is the idea that if man escapes the cave and sees the light he is no longer able to see the shadows that he used to see. This would cause him to believe that the shadows were truer than the light; hence, the illusion of reality would be real to the man, rather than truth. This creates discordance because man will not be able to understand truth and that which is incontestable. The cave also symbolizes the idea thatShow MoreRelatedSocrates : The Suicide Of Socrates1405 Words   |  6 PagesSocrates was born in 470 BCE in Athens, Greece. His father was Sophroniscus, a sculptor and stone mason from Athens and his mother was a midwife by the name of Phaenarete (30 Interesting Socrates Facts 2014). Socrates original profession was masonry and sculpting, before becoming a philosopher. On a day in 399 BC, Socrates ( roughly 71 years at the time) went to trial.Now why would anyone want to send an old man to court? 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