Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
February 28, 2008 – 6:22 pm by JohnIf you took a college philosophy course, perhaps you learned about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which is one of the most fascinating and memorable images in literary history, especially in the history of philosophy. It is from chapter seven of The Republic. I was prompted to find this tale and read it again by Gene Callahan, who wrote a very philosophical post that was inspired by a very stupid philosopher.
Plato’s cave-dwellers and the cave they are forced to live in are supposed to represent humans living in our corporeal universe, ignorant and unenlightened about the true nature of reality and knowledge. He (or, rather, Socrates, in his story) sets the stage by describing people who are born and live out their entire lives in a dimly-lighted cave, chained into a seat with their heads and necks chained into position so that they can only look in front of themselves at a cave wall. The only source of light is a fire that burns behind them. Between them and the fire, other (free) people walk on a walkway or platform, some with animals, some carrying objects, some not. And so all the cave-dwellers can see their entire lives are the shadows that are cast on the wall in front of them. I hope that entices you to read the whole thing; here is the most readable web page I found containing the full text of the Allegory of the Cave (it is surprisingly hard to find the allegory online by itself).
Here is a graphical representation of Plato’s scene:
