"Allegory of the Cave"

Paper Summary:

The paper explains how Plato's allegory of the cave acknowledges our ability to learn about the ideal world by observations of our shadow-world. The paper then focuses on how the accounting profession must grapple with the discrepancy between the ideal and the real and the difficulty of arriving at the truth through deduction and induction.

From the Paper:

"The "Allegory of the Cave" is a fable told by the Greek philosopher Socrates in the classic philosophical work by Plato known as the Republic. It is a story that is designed to illustrate the imperfect state of human knowledge. In the allegory, Socrates describes a situation where human beings are in a dark cave where they are unable to see anything without the light of fire. A kind of campfire burns behind them, created by false hands of deceivers, not by the hands of truth. The humans are chained to the rocks, unable to explore and to move beyond the walls of the cave and see something different than what they are forced to see, because of their physically bound state. These human beings represent all humanity. What is so tragic about our state is that we do not know that we are bound, and that our knowledge is limited, by and large--unless we are philosophers like Socrates."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Cohen, S. Marc. (17 Mar 2008). The Allegory of the Cave. History of Ancient Philosophy. Retrieved 19 Apr 20008 at http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm

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