Plato’s Cave Allegory

Plato was a philosopher who lived and studied philosophy under Socrates during the 5th century BC. He is Socrates’ most famous student and agreed with his teacher that ultimate reality could only exist in the immaterial form and therefore the only worthwhile pursuit. They both believed that they had discovered this reality with the concept of the Form of Goodness. In order to explain his theory of ultimate reality and the process for acquiring this knowledge, he created three separate examples to try and make the concept simple to understand. His most famous is the allegory of the cave and through understanding the story, you can use it to infer Plato’s entire worldview.

This story can be split into three separate parts, the first of which has a group of prisoners inside a dimly lit underground cave. For all of their lives these people have been shackled in place facing a wall without the ability to move their heads. Unknown to them, behind them there is a wall, and further beyond the wall, a fire illuminating the cave. Objects that are being carried by unknown persons between the fire and back wall are casting shadows that appear before the captives. These shadows are the only things they’ve ever seen so they consider them as all there is. Because they are only aware of themselves and the shadows, they take to naming and classifying all the shadows and attributing all unknown sounds to them as well.

Eventually, one of the captives is released and made to leave the cave. Upon being freed he is able to look around and see the objects being carried but has difficulty associating the physical objects with the shadows from before. In fact all of these new sensations, from being asked to name these new objects or facing the light of the fire, makes the captive yearn to only see the shadows again. However, he is forced to continue along a steep and rocky path, still under a directive to exit the cave.

The second part has the protagonist finally entering the outside world where his first sight of the sun instantly overwhelms him and renders him blind. He then reverts back to seeing only shadows as his vision slowly returns to him. First he can only see trees reflected on the surface of water. Then, he can see the trees themselves as they are. He then is able to look up and see the moon and stars above him. It’s only at the end that he is finally able to look once again at the sun without being blinded by it. It is at this moment that he is able to start reminiscing on the nature and purpose of the sun. He realizes that the sun is the source of all sight and even the seasons. This section of the story ends with the freed captive remembering the prisoners still in the cave and it saddens him that they have no idea of the truth and that they take stock in meaningless pursuits and contests. To share with them his new knowledge he decides to go back down into the cave.

Once he re-enters the cave, his eyes can not see through the darkness anymore and it is as if he is blinded again. As he makes his way back to the prisoners, he is challenged to a competition about the shadows on the wall that makes him look incompetent by their standards. He is then ridiculed and the blame is placed on his sojourn up above. Because of this, all of his claims of the world above falls on deaf ears. It even reinforces the belief that staying where they are is the only logical choice they can make since obviously the protagonist has returned worse off than when he left. They end up deciding that instead of letting anyone else leave the cave, it would be better to kill them.

The beginning part of the story is representative of the vast majority of people. The cave is a representation of the visible world which has ordinary people shackled with their closed mindedness and perceived notions. The shadows on the wall are a stand-in for images in the visible world, which according to Plato, is actually the least real thing that exists. In their ignorance however, the captives see them as the most real. After the captive is freed and allowed to turn around, he is faced with the actual physical objects the shadows come from, much like their counterparts in the real world outside of the story. However, like most animals, he is unable at first to make the connection between these physical forms and the shadows they cast. The fire that hurts his eyes represents scientific learning, the visible world’s approximation of the sun. It allows people to better understand the material world. However, for the student of philosophy, the search for truth is not within the material realm and must then be looked for elsewhere. However, this is a difficult concept to grasp. This is the meaning of the steep and rocky path to the outside world.

The middle section of the subject entering the outside world is explaining the process of acquiring the ultimate truth of reality. The outside world corresponds to the unintelligible world. The blindness from the sun symbolizes the realization that everything society taught you as true has barely scratched the surface. The initial blinding by the sun is the realization of the truth and the falseness of everything else. Realization is not understanding though, and that must be obtained in steps. Each step of his sight returning corresponds to one of Plato’s steps to understanding the ultimate truth of reality. First the reflected images are actually mathematical reasons to allow one to better conceptualize the possibility for something to exist without being a physical form. Next, he is able to see objects again which translates to being able to represent the forms of things, such as beauty as a concept and not a physical trait. Finally, he is able to look at and contemplate the sun, which is the ultimate truth,or form of goodness. He realizes that all his insights are made possible because of this form. His thoughts of pity towards his fellow prisoners represents the philosopher’s thoughts towards the ignorant masses. Like The prisoner deciding to return to the cave ,the philosopher’s desires to help the populace realize the truth.

Once the prisoner returns to the cave his eyes are no longer able to adjust to the darkness which symbolizes the philosopher’s inability to deceive himself or others about what is real. When he is challenged according to the rules of his fellow prisoners he fails miserably because he literally can’t see things the way they do anymore. This of course corresponds to the philosopher being unable to reason along the same paths as even the most enlightened of those who study the physical world. After the illumination of the truth, everything of the material realm seems dull and dim. Of course, since he has obviously changed and can no longer relate to them, the prisoners mock, ridicule, and take everything he says with multiple grains of salt and in the real world, Plato is saying that much the same happens a philosopher tries to tell people that everything they know is wrong and to just trust in their teachings. By killing the returned prisoner, they are reaffirming their own beliefs while deterring anyone else from following his path.

Through this allegory, one can understand what Plato considers important and even infer what his worldview is as well. Plato is quite clearly an idealist who believes that there is only one truth that is unchanging. This is most clear in regards to how he portrays those who live wholly in the material world. They are trapped with no idea of what they’re experiencing and without the means to truly free themselves. He is belittling the very concept of finding truth among physical things. However, he does believe it is possible to understand the Form of Goodness with guidance and a lot of hard work.

He believed that people were born and raised in ignorance. That people, like the prisoners, didn’t question what they saw, being assured of the truth of their eyes. The prisoners had set rules and parameters around their perceived world and felt that they understood it. They had formed a culture and when the returning prisoner couldn’t participate in their activities, he became an outsider. Plato thought that ignorance was a false comfort which was hard to escape. The prisoner after having been released has desires to return to staring at shadows even though he now knows there is much more going on in the world around him. Having to confront this new knowledge is taxing and frightening just as Plato believes facing any unknown truths are.

According to this story, Plato considered that the human nature of man encompasses both positive and negative qualities, but only by searching for truth could true goodness be brought out. Those who stayed ignorant were proud and content with what they thought they knew, and had no desire to think outside of their box. Since they had no intention of considering any other truth, they felt threatened by any attempts to share knowledge they didn’t want and resorted to ridicule and violence to suppress it. Plato would have seen this first hand with Socrates, so this would have been reinforced for him. On the other hand, those who sought and found the form of goodness were capable of great acts. Firstly, the very act of seeking truth beyond what we know is a credit to mankind. Even those who discover irrelevant truths about the material world are still further along than those who wallow in their ignorance. However, those who choose to continue searching for the immutable eventually grasp the truth, and are then compelled to share what they’ve learned through their compassion.

The goals of mankind are multiple, but all along a single path to Plato. The first goal is to free oneself from ignorance. However because in the story the captive does not free himself, this represents that without someone to help, freedom from ignorance is impossible. Therefore, one must have a teacher to help a person become a student of knowledge. This is not enough on its own though, because the student, after discovering the barest minimum about the world around them, might believe themselves wise and knowledgeable. This is why Plato believed that another goal must be to continuously seek to gain knowledge and test said knowledge for any imperfections. Just discovering truth just leaves one muddled and confused, it must be contemplated and understood before it can become knowledge. The final goal of mankind leads back to the other two, the sharing of knowledge. Once one becomes enlightened with the meaning of the Form of Goodness, it becomes that person’s responsibility and desire to return to educate those still stuck with wrong ideas. Since this is a goal of humanity it can’t be cast aside or ignored, which is why the prisoner is eventually killed instead of shutting up and trying to fit back in with the others.

Plato used The allegory of the cave to explain what he believed was most important and why he thought it mattered to mankind. People are born ignorant of idealist notions and only through proper instruction can they come to see the truth. However this instruction is not easy and depends on both the teacher and student to push through difficulties in understanding. After the instruction is over, the knowledge of the Form of Goodness would allow the student to be able to see and understand all things. He would then be able to instruct others similarly, thus helping his fellow man become wise. By using all the elements of a quest type story, he packed his theory into an easily relatable and understandable format. Whether or not people agreed with it, at least they understood the concept.