Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Explained.

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Plato’s Allegory of the Cave explores the tension between imagined reality that we think is real (shadows) versus the reality that is the truth (the outside of the cave).

The people inside the cave are only able to look in one direction because they are bound, and they have a fire behind them and a wall in front. Between them and the wall, there is nothing. All that they see are shadows of themselves, and of objects behind them, cast on the wall by the light of the fire.

Inevitably, they regard these shadows as real and do not know the real objects as they are actually. At last, some man succeeds in escaping from the cave to the light of the sun. For the first time, he sees real things, and becomes aware that he had hitherto been deceived by shadows.

If he is the sort of philosopher who is fit to become a guardian, he would go back into the cave and tell others the truth that what they have been thinking so far as real things are just shadows. He will show them the way up. But, others inside the cave would think that he is stupid and would not listen to him.

The prisoners in the cave represent the people who have been blinded by things they see. They pursue the shadows as the real life goals.

The shadows represent the things we perceive to be the truth — what we hear, see, and have been taught as the truth.

The escape signifies seeing and thinking differently from the crowd — those who seek the truth outside of what majority perceive to be the truth; questioning assumptions.

The return marks the urge to help the fellow people to come out of illusion and falsehood, and the danger of resistance, criticism, and threat to such efforts.

Your journey sometimes may lead you to directions that society does not support. Even when you are right. This is what happened to Socrates, the wisest of the Greeks, as well.