Freedom Of Man
...idea for this word. For some it is an intellectual freedom where the mind is able to see the true meaning of the world. Other will say it is a freedom from the distractions of the modern world and a return to the simplistic world of nature. Others may state that it is a freedom for subjectivity in the individual’s life. And still more may define it as being free from the confines of everyday demands and strains. While each definition focuses on a different aspect of human existence, they all have a lack of some constraint, be in physical or mental, as there defining characteristic a free existence. Plato, Thoreau, and Sartre all have their own concepts of freedom and each is defined in its own unique way and is geared to remove a different constraint from human life.
Plato espouses a freedom of the mind and intellect in his work “The Allegory of the Cave” by describing a group of prisoners held in a cave. “The prison house is the world of sight, the light of fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret, the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed, whether rightly or wrongly god knows.” In this story, the prisoners can only see the shadow of various objects and themselves which is thrown off by the firelight. These prisoners who have only known the cave will think that this shadow world is the real world. The story then follows one of the prisoners as he slowly leaves the cave and sees the real objects and people and finally the blinding light of the sun. Plato also examines the repercussions of one who has seen the light and then returned to tell the others who only know the shadow world. The fact that those who are enlightened would not be believed or even worse is not lost on Plato. Plato uses the metaphor of sight as the main theme of his...
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