Enlightenment In The Allegory Of The Cave

Common sense seems to dictate that you should obey the rules of religion no matter what, you can't even think of questioning them. Yet, this is exactly the kind of behaviour what Plato stands against in the Allegory of the Cave. In the allegory, Glaucon gets a moral lesson from Socrates which involves lots of questioning and massive amount of symbolism. Within the allegory, he advises us to question everything, otherwise we can’t get any further. In my point of view the allegory itself represents religion. Whenever there is a religion that people believe, there has been a conflict between local folk and religious people. In the Allegory of the Cave, conflict arises when the prisoner has enlightened but within himself.

First of all, local folk have been fooled by religious acts for many years. Faith doesn’t keep local folk together but their ignorance does. Ignorance doesn’t let people get out of the cave since people are too afraid to get out of there and learn the truth just like prisoners. Plato himself writes, “The truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (para: 13). His point is that, if the person doesn’t know the whole situation clearly, he/she would see things only with a certain point of view. Similar to religious thoughts, you get to see only from one perspective. Religion makes people think the same so they do exactly what they are told or avoid the things they are told as sin. In this manner, people expected to believe in the truths inside the religious books which would make them prisoners.

Secondly, people tended to judge who questions religion. Also, change in rituals counts as a disrespectful behaviour which could take the person apart from his/her family. As a result, person could be excluded from rituals and even excommunicated. In order not to live darkness through, you need to get rid of doxas and find your own true path despite difficulties and confusions. Plato points out that the prisoner who got out of the cave congrats himself and feels sorry for the others when he remembers the times he was in the cave (para: 27). Basically, Plato is saying that when you see the truth, you appreciate yourself and feel sorry for the ones who haven’t get to see the truth. For instance, the Reformation was a religious movement against the Catholic Church and Christianity in 16th century which is leaded by Martin Luther. He rejected many teachings and practices of the Catholic Church, especially indulgences. He challenged the Pope to show that the Bible is the only holy book that people should believe. By doing that, he took huge risks like gaining people's hate, religious authority against him, excommunication and death. Moreover, the most important thing was he get to change some of the doxas that religious people use on others everyday. He managed to begin to question the Catholic Church’s religious acts. He questioned the things which people thought no one could not yet he succeeded to get the truth by questioning them just like the prisoner who could go out. Thanks to Martin Luther, the reform gave people a chance to destroy doxas and reshape the religious thoughts.

Religion comes with flaws and conflicts. In the Allegory of the Cave, conflict arises when one of the prisoner has enlightened. In the real life, when one person enlightened by questioning religious things, it means all people can be enlightened as well.