An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge Essay

An Introduction to the Theory of Knowledge - Essay Example Plato invites us to imagine a group of life-long inhabitants of a prison-cave with no knowledge what so ever of the outside world. When shadows appear on the walls of the cave the inhabitants take them to be real entities without knowing that the shadows are actually those posed by the humans outside. This explanation of Plato directs towards the fact that â€Å"most of us live in ignorance most of the time. The worst of this situation is that we do not even know we are ignorant†. (Mitchell, 2008) The truth that we perceive, therefore, seems to be subjective to our experience and conditioning.The emotional states of our inner being determine the way we see the outside world. Great poetry works are inclined to this particular phenomenology. Poet Matthew Arnold, once, sitting over the edge of Dover Beach claimed the â€Å"grating roar† of the pebbles that the sea flung back and forth over the beach to have brought the â€Å"eternal note of sadness in†(stanza 1). Th e withdrawing of the sea from the coast only reminds him of the ignorance of people and their diminishing faith in god. It is the melancholic and sad state of the poet’s mind that makes him behold the sea also as sad. For a sad person, even a bright sunny green day will appear to be boring while for a joyous person, even a rainy, cloudy or a gloomy day might appear to be mirthful! Differences occur among individuals on the way we emotionally react to certain situations. Temper-oriented people do not need much of a reason to go haywire in anger while for those spiritually and morally inclined individuals, even the most aggravating circumstances might be won over by forgiveness. How we take things, therefore, is a matter of our subjective emotional state. The reason that we claim for any happening is purely determined by the kind of mindset we have been brought up with.