The Allegory of the Cave

by | Tuesday, February 17, 2009

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave (see Wikipedia entry) illustrates “our nature in its education and want of education.” It is maybe one of the most famous allegories in literature and philosophy, a precursor to the kinds of mind-games (think brain in a vat) that philosophers like Dennett engage in today [Where am I? is a good example of this genre].

I am not sure I quite buy into the argument being made in the allegory of the cave, or whether there is one “strict” interpretation of it. The other day I stumbled upon a lovely, stop-motion animated, version of the allegory. Check it out below:

[youtube width=”425″ height=”355″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4XXItJYFKA[/youtube]

The only strange thing in the video was the music they used, particularly towards the end. I sounded very much like an instrumental version of a Bollywood film song… kinda weird. [If you want to hear the actual song this reminded me of go here.]

Incidentally you can find out more about the Plato’s Allegory video by going here.

Topics related to this post: Art | Creativity | Film | India | Philosophy | Religion | Representation | Video | Worth Reading

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2 Comments

  1. Evrim Baran

    Great video…For more simplified version of the “allegory of the cave”, you can read “fish is fish” by Leo Lionni.

    Evrim

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