Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: Understanding it Closely
The content of this article is based on reflections on Plato’s allegory of the cave, in order to understand and analyze deeply the basic and central idea of the content and to understand and relate to the perspective of Plato through the words of his teacher, Socrates. So, the text begins with the understanding that the entire content is in the form of a dialogue between Socrates and the listener, Glaucon. Socrates, begins the conversation by stating the basic structure of the allegory of the cave according to his perspective. So, the cave is a realm of the human beings where they have been living since their birth and it reflects the world of becoming according to him where nothing is permanent or eternal and everything is constantly in flux or motion. Also, there is a separate realm outside the cave where there is light of the Sun in a truer sense and this realm outside the cave reflects the world of being where the objects are as prescribed in his theory of forms. The Form or the Idea of a thing is eternal, indestructible essence of that thing.
What does Plato’s allegory of the cave represent?
So, Plato’s allegory of the cave represents ‘Forms’ that in turn represent the paradigm or exemplar that every particular instance of a given thing must match up with. In this world of being, the Forms are not only real than the physical things, which are merely pale reflections of their transcendent counterparts. Our knowledge of the Forms is what allows us to recognize physical things as what they are and generally to make sense of the world. The humans living inside the cave in the world of becoming are living in a permanent darkness and they have no vision about the reality of the world of being. The conversations which they have amongst each other and the honors which they present to each other are in a way limited to themselves only. Since they are metaphorically chained by darkness and they are compelled to look only towards a particular direction as the chain on their necks and legs hinders them from looking ahead towards light, so all their eyes would perceive would be the shadows of their own images or the shadows of the images of the paintings of the objects on the walls such as men carrying vessels, some walking together, some separate and some ahead of others. After describing and making us known to these miseries of the current world where we reside, Socrates leads us further in the quest of true existence and purpose of our lives, by introducing us to the actual world of reality which is the world of being. This intelligible world can only be perceived by using our reason. Socrates asks his listener to imagine that if by an accidental occurrence, if a person out of all humans residing inside the cave, gets the opportunity to exit the cave and enter the world of being, how would be his perception and thought process at the same moment?
Understanding the essence of Plato’s allegory of the cave
At the initial stage, since the person has persistently been habituated of living in darkness, his eyes would blink upon exiting Plato’s allegory of the cave and his sight would experience the horrors of sudden shining light and as there are bewilderments experienced by the biological eye upon either entering a dark area from a brighter one or entering a brighter one from a darker one. So, similar is the situation with the mind’s eye, which would experience similar bewilderments upon change of perceiving elements. That person would reflect his past images of the shadows of images to be more real and credible rather than the Forms of the World of Being. Also, since his eyes are being compelled to look straight into the light, he would feel pain in his eyes and so he would, as a consequence turn away from the light and consider those past shadows of objects as perceived in Plato’s allegory of the cave to be truer than the objects of reality. Soon, the man would realize that the world which he has entered is more truer than the world in which he was living and he would understand the depth of the Forms and the objects and he would be able to see the Sun and not mere reflections of him in the water and he would contemplate himself as he is. He would then consider his mates still living inside the darkness of the cave to be foolish and narrow minded by their perceptions and knowledge of the reality , and he would then pity them as they would be having a contest about who is the one who can quickly observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together, and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future.
Concluding remarks about Plato’s allegory of the cave
He would then after observing such an ironic sight, find it far better to endure any sort of strife or struggle in the world of being than to return to Plato’s allegory of the cave. Then, after warning us as to the occurrence of such an instance, he then takes the person back to the world of becoming, where now his eyes are again filled with darkness, and he was surrounded by men who possessed the paucity of vision and his own vision was still weak and now that he had returned into darkness, his perception would become ridiculous. After observing such a state of the man, the other men would consider it to be better and safer in the realm where they resided since ages and they would say that up he went and down he came and lost his sight and so it was better to not even think of ascending and if anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the light let them only catch the offender and they would put him to death. Later, Socrates explains the bewilderments of the eyes and says that the one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. Socrates, then puts a conclusive statement that it is absolutely incorrect to say that knowledge can be put into the soul by some professor of it externally as we as humans already possess some knowledge about the soul and the Forms and the power and capacity of learning has pre existed in our souls and just like the eye is unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.
o possessed the paucity of vision and his own vision was still weak and now that he had returned into darkness, his perception would become ridiculous. After observing such a state of the man, the other men would consider it to be better and safer in the realm where they resided since ages and they would say that up he went and down he came and lost his sight and so it was better to not even think of ascending and if anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the light let them only catch the offender and they would put him to death. Later, Socrates explains the bewilderments of the eyes and says that the one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. Socrates, then puts a conclusive statement that it is absolutely incorrect to say that knowledge can be put into the soul by some professor of it externally as we as humans already possess some knowledge about the soul and the Forms and the power and capacity of learning has pre existed in our souls and just like the eye is unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.
