Jess Castaldi
At first, I had a hard time understanding what Plato was trying to say in his “The Allegory of the Cave” I had to read the piece several times before I was finally able to decipher the meaning behind it. To me the central idea of the piece revolves around education and the freedom one experiences when they expand their knowledge. It begins with Socrates setting up this image of a group of people who are bound in a cave and can only experience the world through the shadows and echoes bouncing off the cave walls. These people represent those who are uneducated and therefore only experience a clouded or second hand view of the world. When these people are set free, or educated, they are able to see the world clearly and to experience it in full. However, these people cannot be forced to see and understand the world around them, as they will experience pain from the light and need time to adjust. The same goes for those being educated; a person needs to want to learn in order for them to retain what is unknown. The need to go at their own pace and adjust them to what is being revealed to them. A teacher can only set the platform for learning, it is the students who need to take the leap and enter the vast pool of knowledge. This applies to the art world as well, as a teacher or mentor can only teach the basics of what can be done, it is up to the artist to use those tools to create and develop their own idea and set of works that are unique to themselves.
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