Plato's Allegory of the Cave - Essay Example

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Can the people of Platos cave be truly held responsible for their error of not knowing about the real world? In the Allegory of the cave, it is a fact that those who did not know about the real world should not have been held responsible for their errors simply because they were thinking based on their capacity. These people had notions on how the real world was supposed to be, and because none of them had been in the real world to tell the others, simply believed what they had.

In relation to their thinking capacity, no one can blame them to be having the given knowledge about the real world. They were simply reasoning based on their thinking capacity. It is a fact that by being chained, simply prevented them from exploring more of what lay beyond their cave, thereby believing that they lacked control. In modern day terms, can someone truly be held responsible for something they had done, or not done, based on lack of knowledge over which they have no control? In modern day, holding someone responsible for a given thing that someone has done or not done, simply basing on lack of knowledge is not a good idea as in this case, one has no control.

When one lacks knowledge about a given item, yet they are expecting something from them, failure to do so should not liable them for responsibility as they did know it in the first place.