Plato's Allegory of the Cave: Strengths & Weaknesses

Strengths

• Helps us understand that there are imperfections in the world
• Encourages us not to accept things at face value
• Analogy of the cave is used to illustrate Plato's theory of Forms, Brian Davies says the explanation of the Form's must tell us there is more to reality than we think, because why would we be able to univerally recognise the essence of these Forms.

Weaknesses

• Impossible to prove Plato's theory
• Not everyone will see the Form of Good the same way, it is subjective, not universal like Plato suggests.
• If wse are to believe there is a perfect Form for everything, that is to say there are perfect Forms of unpleasant things such as mud, faeces and mucus. However the World of Forms is meant to be heavenly so these musn't exist there, shouldn't they?
• Plato's illustration is nothing like the world we live in, so we can't relate to it or understand it the way Plato wanted us to.
• Plato implies our senses…