Plato's Cave Allegory and Metaphysics Philosophy

Plato’s Cave Allegory and Metaphysics
Plato’s allegory is a good example that shows how different views of the world can create different perceptions of reality. What is real to me might not necessarily be something that you believe in. It is a concept that tells you that what we experience in lives is what drives our beliefs in reality. If an individual has not seen something, it does not make any sense to explain its existence. To better explain this concept, the example of the government, media and the common man has been used. Plato’s metaphysical views have also been compared to Aristotle’s views in the second part of this paper.
PLATO’S CAVE ALLEGORY IN TODAY’S WORLD
Just like, the individuals in Plato’s allegory who were chained in the caves and tied to the chairs so that they could see nothing but the shadows on the wall of the cave, the television sets that we have in our homes serve the same purpose. People watch what is shown on the television without trying to see anything beyond what is shown on the screens. The media and the government broadcast videos and shows on the TV; they serve as the puppet-handlers who form shadows on the cave walls for the prisoners to see. The common man (who are the prisoners in Plato’s allegory) is seeing what is shown on the TV (cave walls) by the media and the government (puppet-handlers). In today’s high-tech era, it is so easy to get all the information we want at our finger tips. Computers, cell phones, TV and internet serve the purpose of playing the cave walls for us. We don’t try to get to the reality but start to believe what we see through the media. For example, if we look at the Aarushi murder case mystery (popular case in India) where a girl named Aarushi was murdered by the son of a well-known political leader, we can see how the world was blinded from reality by the media and the government. Aarushi was a bar tender, and was murdered by the son of a high profile political leader. Tarun (son) and his...