Allegory of the Cave - Leandra Bourdot

I was not particularly struck by Plato's writings on the nature of truth and perception. While he certainly brings up interesting ideas, I don't feel that he takes them far enough, and furthermore I believe this to be due to the nature in which he explores his ideas. They are presented on a foundation of logic and rationalized conclusions, highly valued in both his time and ours; however, this only represents one facet of the truth he is beginning to realize while precluding him from a full and pervasive understanding of it, due to the constraining/constructive nature of his rationalizations.

Furthermore, the conclusions he draws retain a high degree of the illusion he is beginning to move away from. I find the degree to which he embraces dichotomous understanding to be uninspiring and counterproductive - he's simply creating more illusion to climb his way out of. The "real" stone animals vs their shadows is still another level to the illusory nature of reality, and without his having comprehended that I find his dichotomization of the "enlightened" intellectuals with the cave-dwellers to be pretentious, pompous and just as illusory.

Ultimately, Plato points readers in the direction of truth in the introduction of the idea that all may not be as simple a reality as we've been conditioned to think. However, in his movement towards this he continues to perpetuate that same level of construction, of neatly compartmentalizing and trying to tame reality, that he claims to so advocate breaking away from. In my opinion, Plato needs not to climb the mountain but to open his eyes to the mountain he's already sitting in.