The Allegory of the Cave
Shadows and reflections
Transcript
The best known work of Plato is the famous ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
The allegory of the cave is a dialogue between Socrates and Glaukon, Plato’s brother. It is written down in the book called ‘The state’.
Even though it’s about Socrates, it is clear that Plato is explaining his own philosophy about the world of True Forms, the eternal Ideas of which the physical reality is just a shadow.
Me: “I read the allegory of the cave in college. I saw parallels with Buddhism!”
Yiri: “I know the allegory mainly as inspiration for movies like ‘The Matrix’ and ‘The Truman show’.”
Socrates (written by Plato): “IMAGINE… in a cave, so deep that sunlight does not enter, prisoners are held, chained by the neck, feet and hands so they can only see what’s directly in front of them.”
High up behind them there’s a fire burning. Objects are carried along in front of the fire. The objects cast shadows on the wall facing the prisoners.
Socrates: “Wouldn’t you think that to these prisoners, reality consists of the shadows they see and the echoes they hear?”
Glaukon: “O yes!”
Socrates: “WHAT IF a prisoner broke free - would he not be cramped and blinded by the light of the fire, and so confused that he longed to return to the shadows?”
Glaukon: “I bet!”
Socrates: “And WHAT IF he were led out of the cave to the world above? Would he not be blinded and need time before he could discern shapes? First shadows and reflections… and at last the true forms in the bright light of the sun?”
Glaukon: “Well, I gues he would need some time to adjust…”
Socrates: “WHAT IF he returned to the cave to tell his fellow prisoners about the True Forms he saw? Now unaccustomed to so little light, wouldn’t he be blinded by the darkness? Wouldn’t his words seem incomprehensible?
And if he tried to free his brothers… would they not get angry and try to kill him?”
Me: “Plato must have been thinking about the death of Socrates here!”
Click here to read the original text of the Allegory of the Cave
Click here to read more about the Allegory on Wikipedia
Questions for further discussion
The theme that the reality we see is not the “real” reality, is one that appears in many books and movies. Can you think of one? What are similarities and differences with the Allegory of the Cave?
Advanced assignment: write a modern day Allegory of the Cave, in the form of a short story.
Original pages
I love this, Margreet. Thank you!
Derek DelGaudio had a theatrical magic show where he integrated themes from The Allegory of the Cave. There is a documentary of the show's run that is very good. It is on Hulu and Disney+ in the U.S.
Still a brain breaker ...