IndexIntroductionThe philosophical point of viewSynthesis of the Allegory of the CaveInterpretationConclusionIntroduction Have you ever wondered how real our world is? What makes people feel? How do they develop a sense of being part of the natural world? What is the relationship between human senses and virtual environments? Philosophers and scientists have pointed out the delusional nature of this world for centuries. For human perception, sensations are necessary for the brain to receive the information necessary for survival. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay The senses feed the brain with data. We all grew up knowing the five traditionally recognized senses which are: hearing, smell, sight, taste, touch. Despite general belief, human senses are not limited to those five that bring information from the external world, but there are also senses that bring information from the internal world. Information from the inner world can alert you to pain, hunger, thirst, balance, etc. Therefore, the senses can be divided into external and internal. The basic principle of external senses is that a sense is any system that reacts to physical phenomena and corresponds to a point in the brain. Therefore, the basic senses include: pressure, itching, hunger, thirst, the ability to distinguish cold from hot, the ability to know where the limbs of one's body are, the ability to control muscle movements, a sense of time, and so on. The senses are the source of all our knowledge of external material reality. We cannot know anything about the forms of matter or the forms of movement but only with our senses. The internal senses are mind, intellect, opinion, imagination and feeling. The philosophical point of view The French philosopher René Descartes has been considered the "father of modern philosophy". In 1637, his book Discourse on Method has the phrase “Cogito, ergo sum” meaning “I think before I am” was the primary term for applying his doubt to anything to see if anything remains in the end. He says that he necessarily exists if he thinks and according to him he cannot prove that other minds can exist, but only his own. In Meditations on Philosophy before 1641, he conceived that the mind differs from and is made of a different substance from the body, although they appear to interact with each other. He believes that the mind is separate and could exist without the body. Descartes asks questions about human knowledge. He was skeptical and doubted all human sensory experiences, therefore our senses could be illusions or products of hallucinations. As part of his theory and beliefs, truth and the treasure of the mind are innate ideas. According to his way of thinking there are three different types of ideas: innate ideas, external ideas and ideas that he created and reversed. He states that we cannot trust the senses and that the only thing we can be aware of is the soul. He argues that the physical world cannot exist if sensory and phenomenal experience is the only path to reality. However, if physical science were a guide to reality, then the phenomenal world would not exist. He disagrees that humans are directly connected to physical objects. Looking at any object, humans cannot directly perceive and understand the external world, because they only recognize phenomenal qualities coming from sensory fields. 'Dubium sapientiae initium - Doubt is the origin of wisdom' - René Descartes Contrary to Descartes' theory and according to the principles of the modern philosopher and empiricist John Locke, there are no innate ideas in the mind but only sensory knowledge.He insists that if the human mind had innate ideas, then everyone with a mind should be aware of them. But, he says, it's true that people need to be taught to understand something, and some never learn. Furthermore, for him, innate ideas cannot be innate if the mind is not conscious of those ideas. The senses have the ability or predisposition of the mind to receive and perceive ideas. He calls those ideas – sensations, which arrive or are perceived in this way in the mind. Therefore, the external senses receive ideas through the stimulation of external objects. In this condition, the soul will remain passive as long as the body is influenced by external senses, because the soul cannot change the way it receives or prevent the perception of the idea. In summary, his aim was to study the origin of human knowledge and his conclusion is that all that knowledge comes from sense experience and the mind has no innate ideas but only sensory knowledge. On the other hand, in 1710, around 20 years later, the philosopher George Berkeley, criticized Locke's theory, on independent and dependent sensory qualities in the mind and casual realism. He believes that knowledge comes from experience but in a different way. He criticized Locke's view, regarding the existence of the external world, and according to him, sense things cannot be reality. In A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge 1710, he says: “…number is so visibly relative and dependent on people's understanding, that it is strange to think that anyone could give it absolute existence without the mind. Let's say a book, a page, a line, etc.; all these are equally unities, although some contain many of the others. And in any case, it is clear, unity refers to some particular combination of ideas put together arbitrarily by the mind." He argues because humans experience many things that originate in the mind and according to him the only theory available to empiricists is idealism, the view that physical objects do not exist. Berkeley believes that there is no world without the mind and that all objects that humans experience in their lives are mind-dependent ideas. Similarly, the British philosopher David Hume held the same opinion as Berkeley that humans do not directly experience the external world. But he was skeptical and continues to disagree with Berkley's idealism that physical objects do not exist. Hume connects Descartes' rationalism and Locke's empiricism to demonstrate that humans acquire knowledge from both, which come from external stimuli and innate ideas. In 1748, Hume published "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding," insisting that innate ideas are not useful to the external world and all useful knowledge comes from experience. He says that interpretations in the human mind are made by habit, instinct and thought, not by perception of the external world, and furthermore, the facts that the human mind can understand are through effect. Furthermore, he believes that there are thoughts in the mind, but rejects Descartes' theory that there should be a thinker. He could find no evidence to prove that the human mind is a non-physical substance or that it exists separate from the body. Furthermore, he rejects science and argues that knowledge cannot be linked to metaphysical truth. According to him, reality is subjective, due to the perception of ideas. Already 2,500 years ago, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato was convinced that the body and mind were made up of different substances. He argued that the mind is rational and could lead to truth. Instead it is impossible to think that everything that human beings experience through the senses can be true because they can easily bedeceived. Plato says he cannot trust the senses because people can confuse imagination and reality. It shows that people often have illusions or confuse one object with another. For example, if we immerse a straight stick in water, it may appear bent. In the 5th century BC, The Allegory of the Cave, presented by the Greek philosopher Plato, in his work "Republic", was a theory concerning human perception. The allegory has been described as eternal because it is a reflection of our soul, influenced by education and the lack of it in our nature. Plato's allegory has many meanings and theories, and the story below will explain to you the truth between illusion and real world, connected through the ancient performative space in a metaphorical and literal way. Summary of the Allegory of the CaveThis Allegory tells us about a cave, underground, there are some people or 'prisoners' chained since childhood, in such a way that they can only see the wall in front of them. They cannot look back either to the right or to the left. Behind them there is a huge fire. Between the "prisoners" and the fire there is a raised walkway, on which other people carry various statues of plants, animals, etc. So everything that appears behind them is represented as a shadow across the wall. These people, all their lives, have only seen shadows of things, and they have the impression that the shadows they see on the wall are real or "real" things. Furthermore, the echo that comes from the statue carries whenever they speak, the 'prisoners' believe that these words or echoes come from the shadows. If one of the 'prisoners' of the cave manages to escape from the cave, if he can successfully climb towards the sunlight, he will see the real things, the real world that is not contained only by shadows, as he had learned before. He would realize the deception he had lived in while in the cave. He will realize that the other 'prisoners', still chained to the cave, are immersed in illusions. Once the freed prisoner is able to see the sun, speak and realize the truth, he will not want to return to the cave to help and free the "prisoners", but he will be forced to do so. returned to the cave, he can't get used to the dark, he is trying to teach, to 'open' their eyes and free them, telling them the truth that the perception of their world was an illusion and the real world exists but it's getting out of the cave in the light of day, it is unsuccessful. Because they are used to the darkness and shadows in the cave, that they do not want to see other things, things "unreal" to them, and according to Plato, if they were able to reach out, they would kill anyone who tried to drag them out. InterpretationThe "prisoners" who they have been chained from their legs to their neck, they are unable to turn their body or even their head, so they cannot move or see anything around them. It is very important to limit their optical and mental horizon and show them only what the statue bearers want them to see. Who are these people and what are they doing? They are the people who carry different things like animals, statues, plants, etc. and they keep whatever objects they want, manipulating the "prisoners". And they can only see the shadows of the real objects, and not actually the real object, which means for example that we "receive" the shadow of education but this is only the idea of ​​it and not the real side of it, which exists . Furthermore, the transporters knew that the prisoners could not see the exact colors or shapes of the objects because the wall had cracks and was different, some objects appear in front of other things. So, it is not only that the transporters deceive the prisoners into the dark shadows, but it also seems that the 'false' shadows are the education system, which has been intentionally in the shadows nowadays. Toexample: imagine 5 year old children, who are about to go to kindergarten, the system automatically ties them up, so the children cannot move or learn but only play with their toys. But if they had a different system for them, at the age of 10, their mental stage would have had some knowledge and could have developed differently. While the statue bearers hold their objects and move quickly behind the fire, the prisoners cannot even concentrate and see what the figure is, it makes me think of television and cinema of those days and express my concerns for our society that does not allow us to understand and think about anything, because it moves very fast and if you want to analyze something and think about it, you need time. When the figures on the wall are constantly moving and changing very quickly, how is it possible to connect different things that don't make sense? They are mentally disconnected from the substance of things. They are always walking around, moving objects in their hands, to prevent others from thinking and doing things, obviously on purpose, because they deliberately act and behave like this, for personal gain. In 1957, in New Jersey, United States, an experiment by social psychologist James McDonald Vicary took place in many cinemas and theater spaces in the area. Coca-Cola and the popcorn companies participated in the experiment which took place as is: Flashed viewers a very quick image of 'Hungy? - Eat Popcorn and Drink Coca Cola to see if concession sales will increase. His experiment was actually very successful because it increased sales of popcorn by 57.5% and Coca-Cola by 18.1%. To conclude, this hidden message had an impact on the mind of human beings and even today those secret messages are on a larger scale and control the human being. The same fact that in Plato's theory, images move so quickly in front of them, influencing and controlling the strength of people's mental and emotional behavior. As a result of their manipulative actions, the "prisoners" in Plato's theory are in other words, our generation today. In the Allegory, the shadows on the wall are only the reflection of the real objects and the sound is not the real one. sound coming from the objects, but from the bearers of the statues. In addition to the above, while the bearers of the statue acted and moved, they at the same time spoke. If we consider that the cave is an acoustic space, the sound was multiplied and producing an echo, due to the structural shape, like a closed underground space, their noise, which was uncontrolled and very loud, clearly has an impact on the rest the people in the cave. Similar to this is the environment in public spaces today, which causes confusion in the minds of human beings and does not allow them to think clearly. For example, in most public spaces, the music is so loud that people can hear themselves, but that doesn't make them care whether it's real or not. In reality they have fallen into a trap. They are the 'prisoners' of the cave. It is important to understand that not only the visual image, but also the acoustic one, increases the risk of negative effects on mental and emotional health. Then, Plato says: imagine that one of the 'prisoners' is freed from his chains because some cause forced him to stand up, turn around and walk. What does internal cause mean? How can this help them be free? This is the feeling of hopelessness when we go through many situations of unhappiness or sadness in life. Because the soul is not used to those feelings, and in fact the situation makes them 'wake up' from deep sleep. Suddenly, they realize the situation they are in.