Allegory of the cave

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Category: Literature

Published on Friday, 31 July 2020 09:16

“Allegory of the cave” also called “Plato’s Cave”, is a part of “De Republica” (The Republic), written by Plato. It was published between 380 to 360 B.C. and is known to be one of the most famous and influential philosophical works of all time.

In the first part the Allegory deals with a fictional setup, in which a group of people is, since their childhood, imprisoned in a cave. Their heads are fixed in a way that they can only look towards a wall. Behind this wall, another group of people is carrying objects over their heads. Between the wall and the group of people, which are carrying objects, is a fire, so that the objects cast a shadow. These shadows of the transported objects are the only things the imprisoned people are able to see. In the second part, one of the imprisoned people leaves the cave. The freed person sees the sun and is hurt by its brightness. The pain from looking into the sun would probably make the person refuse to believe that the outside world represents a higher truth and makes him run back into the cave, which he sees as the normal world and the shadows as the real objects.  Furthermore, even if the person would realise that the outside is the reality and would go back into the cave to try to inform the others, they probably wouldn’t believe him. His eyes now used to the sun would at this point be unable to see the shadows, that he has seen before as the reality. The other imprisoned people would notice his inability to see the shadows and therefore think that the outside of the cave and the sun are dangerous, therefore they want to stay in the cave to be safe.

You can try to figure out the meaning of the Allegory by yourself or read the following interpretation, which is the most common one. There are a couple of symbols that are important to understand the meaning of the text. The freed prisoner can be seen as a philosopher, who is willing to leave the cave of misunderstanding, where the people only rely on their senses to discover knowledge. The Sun represents the philosophical truth, which first hurts the freed person but later is seen a superior by him. On his return to the cave the philosopher can’t change the mind of the imprisoned people, because their cultural and political doctrine makes them scared to give up their old believes.

This is one of a few Allegories that you will find in "The Republic", written by Plato.