Truth in Philosophy: Examining Allegory, Phaedrus and Perspectives

This essay delves into the philosophical concept of truth, examining its various interpretations through the lens of Plato's Allegory of the Cave and Phaedrus, as well as Pirsig's perspective. The analysis reveals that truth can be understood as reality, fact, honesty, and the elimination of ignorance. In the Allegory of the Cave, truth is equated with the reality discovered upon gaining new knowledge, contrasting with the prisoners' limited perception of shadows. Plato's Phaedrus presents truth as the opposite of myths, emphasizing the importance of evidence and informed judgment. The essay concludes that the pursuit of truth requires soul-searching and a willingness to eliminate ignorance, ultimately embracing reality, facts, and honesty to understand phenomena. Desklib offers a platform to explore similar solved assignments and past papers for students.

Running Head: WHAT IS TRUTH? 1
What is truth?
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WHAT IS TRUTH? 2
What is truth?
In all honesty, truth is not a new word, but it is a common word that people use in most of
their conversations and in numerous instances, you must have equally used it. Take an example
of a courtroom, people do swear using a bible and insist that whatever they shall say is the truth.
In this case, one would observe truth as honesty. Also, if someone tells an individual that China
is the most populous nation in the world. This is the undeniable truth that China has the highest
population in the world today unless something changes. In this scenario, truth can be
synonymous with a fact. Also, if someone says that the sun sets and rises, one would consider it
as truth. Using this example of the sun, truth is viewed as a reality. Equally, when one applies it
to Allegory of the Cave and Pirsig and Plato’s Phaedrus truth is still defined as a fact, reality,
honesty, and elimination of ignorance.
Based on the Allegory of the Cave, truth is basically reality. Usually, people have
imagined reality as discussed in this book. Individuals in the cave would observe shadows and
consider them to be real. They would believe that shadows are real objects, which perhaps are
tangible. Note that in the Allegory of the Cave, the prisoners do not enjoy the freedom of
observing the world and understanding the reality of objects (Peterson, 2017). While in the cave,
prisoners observe things and conclude them to be the truth. However, when one of the prisoners
gets out of the cave and observes the world, he discovered the actual truth. Hence, truth from the
Allegory of the cave simply means the reality that people discover when they gain new
knowledge about something.
Discovering truth requires a person to learn new things. Learning something new gives a
person a different perspective or worldview on various phenomena. It is crystal-clear that when
an individual holds one view and lacks exposure to the outside world, they are unlikely to know

WHAT IS TRUTH? 3
what truth is. However, when a person steps out and gains new knowledge about something, they
can know what truth is. That's why, the example of a prisoner in the Allegory of the Cave, which
stepped out, gained new knowledge that helped him know the truth about the shadows they,
observed in the cave (Peterson, 2017). To the prisoners living in the cave, the shadows were real
objects. Thus, whatever they observed in the form of shadows to them was the truth. From this
example, truth still can be considered as reality. This is on account that the prisoner who stepped
out of the cave gained new knowledge or got exposed to what is real. While in the cave, the
prisoner understood shadows as an imagined reality, but when outside he saw the actual objects.
In Plato’ Phaedrus, truth is viewed as the opposite of a myth. A myth is a fabricated story,
which is told to people and people believe in it (Kastely, 2019). A myth occurs as a result of
creativity, where a person tells perhaps a fairy tale and propagates it as a true account. In
Phaedrus, there are more myths which Plato tells. For instance, there is a myth of Boreas and
Oreithyia (Lavilla, 2018). These myths that are being told by Plato do not bear much reality but
are reflective of some reality. Therefore, truth can be considered as the opposite of a myth. This
is because truth is what is there, and cannot be opposed. When people tell myths, they are just
recounting or narrating stories of things that in all probability are imagined and cannot be
proved. However, for truth one can prove it with not just an explanation, but with evidence.
Truth is what people can prove. If a person claims something and can prove it to be real
beyond any reasonable doubt then that shall be regarded as truth. It is within this framework of
thinking that a person could consider truth as something that can be proved to remove doubts. It
doubts that make people deny truth about something. If doubts can be removed from people
about a belief or an event, then truth can be discovered. However, perhaps Plato’s Phaedrus

WHAT IS TRUTH? 4
shares myths so that people can reason among themselves and make informed judgments
(Kastely, 2019). When individuals make informed judgments, they are likely to know the truth.
From the analysis of Allegory of the cave, Persig, and Plato’s Phaedrus truth is
synonymous as a fact. A fact is an actuality or true information that one cannot deny. It is fiction
that is portrayed usually in myths. When there are facts about something, it would be difficult for
an opposing side to deny. For instance, it is a fact that Plato was a philosopher. It is difficult for a
person to deny the fact that Plato once existed given there are many historical accounts including
Phaedrus that acknowledge his existence. In this sense, one would say perceive the existence of
Plato as truth. Therefore, when a person talks about truth they are referring to facts.
Further, a thorough examination of these philosophical works seems to define truth as a
basis for eliminating ignorance. For instance, in the Allegory of the cave, it is apparent that the
prisoners were ignorant of what truth is, but when one of them ventured out and discovered truth
he felt enlightened. When a person becomes enlightened, it implies that they have discovered
truth. Thus, discovering truth in other words simply implies eliminating ignorance.
In conclusion, from the research, it found that Persig claimed that when truth knocks on
the door, a person would not retort that it should go away. Besides, Persig insists that a person
would still insist that he search for truth, instead it goes away (Books, 2017). Ideally, when
looking for truth, people need to soul-search because they will be in constant denial of truth until
they accept to eliminate ignorance and embrace what they are told as truth. Therefore, truth is
reality, facts, or honesty that people constantly seek to understand phenomena.

WHAT IS TRUTH? 5
References
Books, W. (2017). Summary and Analysis of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An
Inquiry into Values: Based on the Book by Robert M. Pirsig. Open Road Media.
Kastely, J. (2019). The Eros of Sameness and the Rhetoric of Difference in Plato’s
Phaedrus. Rhetoric Society Quarterly, 49(1), 90-110.
Lavilla de Lera, J. (2018). The Prayer to Pan of Plato’s Phaedrus (279b8–c3): An Exhortation to
Exercise the Philosophical Virtue. Symbolae Osloenses, 92(1), 65-106.
Peterson, V. V. (2017). Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: literacy and “the good”. Review of
Communication, 17(4), 273-287.