Plato’s Cave Metaphor

Among the most precious messages left to us by ancient Greece are certainly the works of Plato. This great philosopher, the subject of eternal debate among different schools of thought, remains relevant in every era because he speaks about what transcends the limitations of specific historical moments: the content of human life, what happens to a person internally, and the necessary direction and characteristics that shape the life one lives externally.

– Therefore, I said, consider our nature in relation to whether it is or is not educated, along with the following conditions. Imagine, for instance, that people live in an underground cave with a long entrance open to the light; that they are chained from childhood with shackles on their legs and necks, so that they remain in the same place and can only look straight ahead, unable to turn their heads due to the shackles, while a distant and overhead firelight casts its glow upon them.

Backs to the walls; between fire and captives, imagine a path upwards, and next to it a wall, like magicians standing before the audience behind a fence, showing off their tricks.

“I imagine it.”

So imagine, then, people along that wall carrying all sorts of devices that peek above the wall, statues, other stone, wooden, and intricately crafted creatures; and it is natural for some of the carriers to speak, while others remain silent.

“You paint a strange picture and strange captives.”

“They are similar to us! For do you not think, first of all, that the captives, from themselves and from each other, would see anything other than the shadows that would fall on the cave wall in front of them from the fire?”

“Well, how could they, if they were forced to keep their heads still their whole lives?”

“And what would they see of the objects that were being carried past? Would it not be the same?”

“Undoubtedly.”

“And if they could speak among themselves, do you think they would not call the shadows they see the same names as the real objects?”

“No doubt.”

“Furthermore, if there were echoes in the prison from the opposite side, when one of the passersby… He said, do you think they would believe that someone else is speaking, and not a shadow that would pass calmly?
– By Zeus, I don’t think so.
– So such people would believe that nothing else is true except shadows of objects?
– Very necessary.

Plato describes the state of ignorance in man, comparing the “world revealed through sight” with the “state in the cave.”

The “world revealed through sight” is the apparent world, the world of shapes and objects, the manifested world whose cause is existence, the invisible life of all visible phenomena. The world that man directly sees is a reflection, a shadow of true reality that physical eyes cannot see. They receive the light of the fire burning “from above and far away” in the cave, the light of the physical Sun, thus doing what nature intended for them.

What represents ignorance or the “state in the cave” for Plato is the relationship of man to the apparent world, an attachment solely to what the senses convey. People who are enchained see only shadows, reflections on the cave wall, they are the ones who only receive o But what the “eye” conveys to them – the symbol of physical senses, surface observation of things. Their reality is then limited, and they themselves are slaves to their own attitude caused by ignorance: “what I see, hear, touch, that is what I acknowledge” … Man does not remain an immobile prisoner of the cave because he finds himself in the manifested world, but because he thinks that is all there is, because he does not know any better.
But Plato says that there is an exit from the cave, and between the prisoners and the cave wall there is a path that leads upward…
– So, imagine what would happen to them if they were freed, if they discarded the chains and cured their madness, if this were to naturally happen to them. If one was untied and suddenly forced to stand up, turn his neck, step and look up towards the light, he would feel pain in all of that and because of the brilliance of the light he would not be able to recognize what he had seen before as a shadow. – What do you think he would say if someone told him that he was looking at nonsense back then, but now he sees better, since he is closer to the truth and turned towards the object. There are those in which there are more battles, and if everything that would pass by him would be shown to him and he would be forced to answer questions, what would it be? Do you think he wouldn’t be confused and think that what he had seen so far is more true than what is now being shown to him?
– Of course.
– Why not, and if he was forced to look only at the light, his eyes would hurt, he would run away and turn to what he can see, and he would think that it is really clearer than what would be shown to him?
– Yes, that’s how it would be.
– And if someone dragged him by force from there up a rough and steep ascent and didn’t let go until he brought him to the sunlight, wouldn’t he be irritated and angry, being pulled and when he already arrived in the light, his dazzled eyes wouldn’t be able to see anything of what we now call true?
– Well, not if it happened suddenly.
– So, I think he would need to be educated if he wanted to see the objects above. And at first, he would most easily perceive shadows, then, images of humans and others in the water, and then the objects themselves. After that, he would be able to observe them more easily At night, the things in the sky, and only the sky, are silent, looking at the light of the stars and the moon, rather than the sun and sunny light during the day.

– How not!

Plato symbolically depicts the pursuit of knowledge. The former prisoner becomes a traveler who must go through the difficulties of the unknown path: steep ascent, uncertainties and doubts, the light to which he must gradually and patiently adapt.

Only after much effort can the traveler see a different reality:

– Finally, then, I think he could see and contemplate the Sun as it is, not its image in the water and in another place, but the Sun itself in its rightful place and in its full reality.

– Absolutely.

– And then he would conclude from it that it gives seasons and years, that it governs everything in the visible world and that it is in some way the cause of everything that is visible.

– Obviously, after what he had experienced, he would come to that conclusion.

– So, when he would remember the old dwelling, the wisdom there, and the suffering companions of that time, do you think he would not consider himself lucky because of that change and regret them?

– Very much so.

– And if there, in that new reality, there were Oh, what an honor and praise from others and what a privilege for one who has seen the shadows passing by most sharply and remembered them the best, which used to pass before, later, and together, and then from that, he would best guess what will happen, do you think, that he would be eager for it and jealous for the honor and power among them? Or would what Homer said happen to him and he would love “to serve another man, poor as a beggar” and would rather endure something than think and live like that?

– I think he would rather endure everything than live like that.

Unlike the cave, the visible and manifested world, true reality is found in the supersensible world, the world of ideas. That is the world that approaches the essence, the world of preimages, the causes of everything that is visible. The traveler who becomes accustomed to its light begins to understand the difference between knowledge and ignorance, the difference between the freedom offered by knowledge and the life of prisoners confined to the cave. However, Plato assigns a new path to his traveler. the able to descend into the cave again. It is his duty to reveal to his former companions what he has come to understand. However, the journey back down represents a new process of overcoming difficulties, and the prisoners of the cave do not accept anyone who disturbs their immobility.

– So, remember this. If such a person were to descend again and sit in the same place, wouldn’t their eyes be filled with darkness, having come suddenly from the sun?
– Absolutely.
– And if they were then to engage in arguments with those eternal prisoners, judging those shadows while still dazzled, before their eyes adjust – and this period of adjustment would not be short – wouldn’t they laugh at him and wouldn’t people say that he went up there only to return with blinded eyes, and that it’s not even worth trying to go up there? And if they could get their hands on the one who wanted to reveal them and lead them up, wouldn’t they kill him!
– They certainly would.

Despite this, according to Plato, those who know are duty-bound to free from their chains those who do not know, more important than any other knowledge: the knowledge of good.

Describing the world outside the cave, the world of ideas, Plato says that in it the Sun reigns, giving life to everything – the idea of good. It is “… the cause of everything that is right and beautiful in the world; in the visible world it gives birth to light and its master, and in the intellectual world it itself as a master, giving truth and understanding … it needs to be seen by anyone who wants to work wisely in either private or public life.”

The knowledge of good does not simply mean despising shadows. What prisoners in the cave must learn is to recognize truth in all its reflections. To recognize what manifests as the Beautiful, the Good, and the Just in all things: the idea of good.

With this knowledge, they learn to recognize and differentiate shadows from reality, to properly evaluate things, and to create forms and a life that will be a more complete reflection of the good, the beautiful, and the just. That is also the meaning of breaking free from shackles.

But how can prisoners recognize the truth if their eyes convey only an incomplete reality, which is a tool in b “removing of shackles?”
“Plato says: “… that power, as well as the means by which everyone learns, is in everyone’s soul. But just as the eye can only turn towards the light from darkness with the whole body, so must this power turn with the whole soul from the realm of existence until it becomes capable of seeing and rising to the essence and the brightest point of essence, which is, we say, goodness.”
Unlike the senses that only convey the characteristics of reflected reality, the ability of complete understanding is found in the soul: “That which is more divine in us, which never loses its power.” The soul, invisible yet present, can elevate man to the “thoughtful end”, an invisible reality to which it itself belongs. It is the link through which man can achieve harmony between his own being and the world in which he lives: when the soul sees truth, the hands transmit it through actions and man is then simply alive.”
“And how, therefore, to stimulate the soul?”
“Through education,” says Plato. But the soul does not need “implanted vision”. The soul sees. Education is the art of turning the eyes of the soul to the right side…