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• Allegory of the cave meaning free#

Returned to a state where reality is limited, but completely aware of the true (or at least truer) nature of reality, this prisoner would be fundamentally separated from his companions. Once accustomed to the sun, being replaced in the cave is analogous to being “overwhelmed by darkness” (62). But this prisoner’s life is still in Plato’s hands, and so he is naturally returned to his original state. With this supreme knowledge, he has become equal to those who dwelt outside of the cave all their lives. From this one object, and the passage of time, he is able to deduce the seasons, the cycle of days, and even the relationship between the sun and objects which rely on it.

At long last, the prisoner is introduced to the source of all life on Earth, the sun. However, after a process of gradual acceptance, the prisoner is introduced to items and given knowledge of the world outside of his cave. Plato questions, “if he were forced to look at the actual firelight, don’t you think it would hurt his eyes? Don’t you think he’d turn away and run back to the things he could make out, and would take the truth of the matter to be that these things are clearer than what he was being shown?” (61) The firelight becomes frightening to the prisoner for Plato, and he seeks refuge in the familiar. It would seem to be the very thing which gave life to the shadows, the source of all material existence. More troubling, however, is this issue of the fire, the common element in all of his perceived reality.

Allegory of the cave meaning free#

if they were set free from their bonds and cured of their inanity?” (61) When one prisoner is set free, is able to finally see the substance which has cast his reality, the object to which a shadow belongs becomes more real than the shadow. He asks, “what do you think would happen, then. Indeed, the shadows would constitute the truth of the objects which cast them, as there would be no means through which to understand the nature of the objects outside of their shadows.Īn imagining of how the cave would function by an unknown author.Īt this point, Plato decides to reveal our world to one of his hypothetical prisoners.

These shadows, he concludes, would constitute the people’s only known reality, and so they would live as though the shadows had meaning. As well, there are a group of people who place certain objects in front of the flame so that shadows are cast on the wall which the group of people are forced to stare at. They are separated from all light aside from a flame above and behind them. We’re asked to imagine that there is a group of people in a cave, held in place so that they can only see one wall of the cave. He begins by presenting us with a hypothetical situation. Plato’s goal in his allegory is to show that there is indeed a reality beyond our common perception (think of his ideal forms) and that those who are capable of seeing it are often discredited simply because those who are not have no means of understanding it. The book is commonly referred to as “the allegory of the cave,” and is used to distinguish between subjective and objective reality. As I’ve already included a short biography on Plato in this post I’m going to jump right into the text itself.īook VII of The Republic is probably one of the best known philosophical works for pluralism that exists today.