The Allegory of the Cave

1. Plato realizes that the general run of humankind can think, and speak, etc., without
(so far as they acknowledge) any awareness of his realm of Forms.
2. The allegory of the cave is supposed to explain this.
3. In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the Theory of Forms to prisoners
chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave.
Behind them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet,
along which puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners,
hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable
to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners
see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. Here is
an illustration of Platos Cave:

From Great Dialogues of Plato (Warmington and Rouse, eds.) New York, Signet Classics: 1999. p. 316.

4. Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things
they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real
causes of the shadows.
5. So when the prisoners talk, what are they talking about? If an object (a book, let us
say) is carried past behind them, and it casts a shadow on the wall, and a prisoner
says I see a book, what is he talking about?

He thinks he is talking about a book, but he is really talking about a shadow. But he
uses the word book. What does that refer to?

6. Plato gives his answer at line (515b2). The text here has puzzled many editors, and
it has been frequently emended. The translation in Grube/Reeve gets the point
correctly:

And if they could talk to one another, dont you think theyd suppose that the names
they used applied to the things they see passing before them?

7. Platos point is that the prisoners would be mistaken. For they would be taking the
terms in their language to refer to the shadows that pass before their eyes, rather
than (as is correct, in Platos view) to the real things that cast the shadows.
 If a prisoner says Thats a book he thinks that the word book refers to the very
thing he is looking at. But he would be wrong. Hes only looking at a shadow. The
real referent of the word book he cannot see. To see it, he would have to turn his
head around.

8. Platos point: the general terms of our language are not names of the physical
objects that we can see. They are actually names of things that we cannot see,
things that we can only grasp with the mind.
9. When the prisoners are released, they can turn their heads and see the real objects.
Then they realize their error. What can we do that is analogous to turning our heads
and seeing the causes of the shadows? We can come to grasp the Forms with our
minds.
10. Platos aim in the Republic is to describe what is necessary for us to achieve this
reflective understanding. But even without it, it remains true that our very ability to
think and to speak depends on the Forms. For the terms of the language we use get
their meaning by naming the Forms that the objects we perceive participate in.
11. The prisoners may learn what a book is by their experience with shadows of books.
But they would be mistaken if they thought that the word book refers to something
that any of them has ever seen.

Likewise, we may acquire concepts by our perceptual experience of physical objects.

But we would be mistaken if we thought that the concepts that we grasp were on the
same level as the things we perceive.

The Allegory of The Cave by Plato: Summary and Meaning

The Allegory Of The Cave is a theory put forward by Plato, concerning human perception. Plato claimed that
knowledge gained through the senses is no more than opinion and that, in order to have real knowledge, we must
gain it through philosophical reasoning.

The Allegory of the Cave by Plato

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato distinguishes between people who mistake sensory knowledge for the truth and
people who really do see the truth. It goes like this:

The Cave
Imagine a cave, in which there are three prisoners. The prisoners are tied to some rocks, their arms and legs
are bound and their head is tied so that they cannot look at anything but the stonewall in front of them.
These prisoners have been here since birth and have never seen outside of the cave.
Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between them is a raised walkway.
People outside the cave walk along this walkway carrying things on their head including; animals, plants,
wood and stone.
The Shadows
So, imagine that you are one of the prisoners. You cannot look at anything behind or to the side of you
you must look at the wall in front of you.
When people walk along the walkway, you can see shadows of the objects they are carrying cast on to the
wall.
 If you had never seen the real objects ever before, you would believe that the shadows of objects were
real.
The Game
Plato suggests that the prisoners would begin a game of guessing which shadow would appear next.
If one of the prisoners were to correctly guess, the others would praise him as clever and say that he were a
master of nature.
The Escape
One of the prisoners then escapes from their bindings and leaves the cave.
He is shocked at the world he discovers outside the cave and does not believe it can be real.
As he becomes used to his new surroundings, he realizes that his former view of reality was wrong.
He begins to understand his new world, and sees that the Sun is the source of life and goes on an
intellectual journey where he discovers beauty and meaning
He sees that his former life, and the guessing game they played is useless.
The Return
The prisoner returns to the cave, to inform the other prisoners of his findings.
They do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free.

The Allegory of The Cave by Plato The Meaning

The Allegory of the cave by Plato should not be taken at face value. In essays and exams, whoever is marking it
expects you to have a deeper understanding of the meaning of the theory. You can then use these to think about
criticisms and then to form your own opinion.

The Cave
In Platos theory, the cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear
in the world empirical evidence. The cave shows that believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in a
cave of misunderstanding.
The Shadows
The Shadows represent the perceptions of those who believe empirical evidence ensures knowledge. If you
believe that what you see should be taken as truth, then you are merely seeing a shadow of the truth. In
Platos opinion you are a pleb if you believe this (their insult for those who are not Philosophers)!
The Game
The Game represents how people believe that one person can be a master when they have knowledge of
the empirical world. Plato is demonstrating that this master does not actually know any truth, and
suggesting that it is ridiculous to admire someone like this.
The Escape
 The escaped prisoner represents the Philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside of the cave and outside of
the senses.
The Sun represents philosophical truth and knowledge
His intellectual journey represents a philosophers journey when finding truth and wisdom
The Return
The other prisoners reaction to the escapee returning represents that people are scared of knowing
philosophical truths and do not trust philosophers.

Why does Plato compare ordinary human existence to that of chained

prisoners in a cave?

The Allegory of the Cave is an

allegory to evaluate a journey from darkness to light as the mind moves toward the
Forms. The cave is considered the world of the five senses meaning we acquire
our opinions through the influence of others. Once free from the cave, individuals
are on a constant upward path by the means of intellect rather than by the
persuasion of the senses.
These chained prisoners reside in a cave only able to be guided by their sense.
Their eyes are fixed on the wall and they are unable to move their bodies or head.
Behind these prisoners is a large fire and in between the fire and prisoners is a
walkway, which various puppets and marionettes move. These figures cast shadows
amongst the wall which is what the chained prisoners lock their eyes on. Behind this
cave there is a used road and upon this road people are walking and talking and
making noises. The prisoners believe that these noises come directly from the
shadows projected on the cave wall.
The prisoners come to this conclusion because this is all that they see and know
using their senses. The truth to the prisoners is nothing but the shadows on the wall.
 When one is compelled to get up and look towards the light he is struck with pain for
he is experiencing the unknown, something he cannot explain: the light. He then
realizes that everything his eyes were fixated on in the cave was just a false sense
of reality and by looking at the sun he questions his existence. He begins to pity the
prisoners in the cave for being naive and not knowing what he just learned. If he
were to return to the cave and share his new findings he would seem ridiculous for
he would have to re-adjust to the caves setting and none of the prisoners could
possibly grasp these new and complex ideologies.
There is always journey upwards to the path of intellectual growth that is in ones
hands to choose to travel on it or not. It is based on an individuals desires. To see
and understand true good comes with effort, and in order for one to be revealed to
the source of reason and truth they must embark on this path of intellect.

nterpreting Platos Allegory of

the Cave

Platos allegory of the cave (alternately parable of the cave) is a

rather popular philosophical example. Its taught in classrooms
and appears often enough in internet posts and videos to outpace
other philosophical thought experiments, save perhapsZeno of
Eleas famous Achilles and the Tortoise problem. Ostensibly its
taught to impart some kind of wisdom or other, and it is
unfortunately many peoples first contact with philosophy
unfortunate because its often spoken of as imparting some
common-sense knowledge, and the entire context of Plato, ancient
Greek philosophy, and philosophy in general are left out.

Its one part of Platos The Republic, known in its own time as
On Justice, and is another use of Platos fictitious Socrates
(Socrates himself has no extant writings; all we know of him are
what we divine through reading Plato, which becomes difficult
when we imagine Plato easily injecting his own views into the
mouth of his teacher).

The usual gist is one of mysticism and erudite wisdom as were

introduced to the allegory. Plato asks us to imagine men chained
up in a cave, unable to leave and forced to stare at the side of the
cave opposite the entrance.

When anything passes by the mouth of the cave the chained men
see only the shadows generated by the true objects moving
outside. This is how they construct their view of the world.

But what happens, Plato asks, if one of the chained men escapes
the cave? He is able to roam outside and see the world for what it
actually is.

But the man ultimately wants to help those in the cave, and so
returns to explain to them that what they have been seeing this
whole time is an illusory world of shadows, not actual reality.

The manthe sageis ridiculed as insane. He is blinded from his

time outside, and can no longer see in the dark cave. The chained
men think this outside world has harmed the sage, and they
believe the shadow world to be the real one which this man can no
longer understand.

And so its usually concluded: Things are not what they seem, and
those with knowledge are often ridiculed by the ignorant who
dont know any better. We cant be sure that what were seeing is
the shadow world, or the real worldwe need to be careful about
making truth claims, because we could be looking at mere
shadows.

This reading is almost completely detached from Plato and is most

definitely wrong. You can interpret it this way as a text, but I
would argue that this is not what Plato intended to write, and
makes no sense at all in the context of The Republic and his body
of work as a whole.

What did he intend to write?

First, the thing to understand about Plato and the movement

within ancient Greek philosophy beginning with Socrates is what
they were trying to do. They were concerned with arete, which
means something like virtue. Socrates and Plato wanted you to
practice philosophy (philo + sophia = knowledge lover) in order
to make yourself into the best person you could logically be.

While philosophy was very different from the state religion

(polytheism; think of Olympian gods; Zeus and Apollo), it is also
thought that Platos Academy was a mystery culta secret club
which kept an oral history reserved only for initiates. Its thought
that the majority of Platos teachings are then lost oral traditions,
kept secret by his initiates. To put things into perspective,
Pythagoras famously had a mystery cult which managed to control
the political system of the Greek city-states in Southern Italy for a
time. Serious business.
This is not to discredit Plato, but to illustrate the kind of force
Plato exerted on Greek culture when he was alive. Today
philosophy can be detached and theoretical, but in Platos time it
was explicitly about a way of life. Platos connection with
mysticism is another story entirely, but I want to be clear that
Plato was not simply trying to prove theoretical, academic points
he was trying to convince people to live like he did.

The Republic then is not just a treatise about how to arrange a

cityits thesis is: It is always better to be just than unjust. The
city planning, while perhaps concrete in some waysit was not
unheard of for a philosopher to draft a new city-states
constitutionwas meant to be an easy to understand large-scale
version of the individual human soul. Its ancient name On
Justice is indeed more appropriate.

So, what does the allegory of the cave have to do with justice?

Plato held a view commonly referred to as the theory of the

forms. The gist is that he wants you to think of the objects of
experience as imperfect replications of ideal objects, which reside
in heaven. The chair you are sitting on is not a perfect chair, it is
an imperfect copy of the ideal chaira thing so perfect it could
never instantiate in our reality. Its kind of like this: If you close
your eyes and imagine a perfect circle, you have the idea of a circle.
Now you can go around identifying circular things around you, but
note that none of them are like the imagined circleperfect circles
dont exist in nature. Yet somehow, we can imagine one. Plato
thinks this must mean they exist somewhere, or somehow.

The boundary between the cave and the outside world represents
the difference between doxa and episteme. For Plato, doxa
refers to common beliefthe word roughly translates to
something like appearance. Episteme is knowledge, or what is
known as true justified beliefthis translates to to know and is
opposite the Greek term techne which Plato distinguishes as
mere technical knowledge, or craftsmanship.

Plato then regards justice in this fashion. Although it can be

argued that his specific example in the allegory is education in
general, its placement in the text of The Republic is such that it
also communicates this theory of forms. Plato wants to relate to
his audience what it would mean to contemplate the existence
the ontological status (onto + logy = existence science)of a
thing like justice, and how we could know itits epistemic status
(epistemology being the study of the nature of knowledge).
Interpretations of Platos ontological commitments are many and
byzantine, but all we need to know here is that this is the way in
which he means to discuss the allegory.

The allegory of the cave is offered in this capacity. The shadows of

objects inside of the cave are the objects of the forms existing
imperfectly in our reality. We perceive them as such and believe
them to be real. But Plato wants to insist that outside the cave are
the real things, the forms themselves. Not unlike Indian and
Buddhist thought, the man who becomes enlightened (a sage or a
bodhisattva) chooses to return to help the people, but is regarded
as insane for his knowledge of the true nature of reality.

Plato is making an ontological claim that the world around us is

illusory, and that real knowledge is rational (of the mind) and not
empirical (observational) this is an epistemic claim as well as an
ontological claim. Nothing in the world is real (like the shadows),
and true knowledge resides in knowing the forms (the objects
outside the cave).

Plato is not here prompting his readers to withhold their

judgement or examine situations critically in their daily lives
rather he would like them to accept this part of his doctrine so that
he may move on to another part of his argument, so that it may be
grounded in this point. Plato is, while simultaneously making a
point about the process of education and enlightenment, trying to
change the entire worldview of his readers.

Because of this, there is little pragmatic advice to be taken from

the allegorylike we might expect of the philosophy that we
encounter today in magazines and on television. Plato is offering a
kind of self-help program, but its of a more mystical tone than a
Tony Robbins telling you to feel good about yourself. Plato wants
to change your epistemic and ontological commitments in order to
achieve arete (moral virtue).
THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE BY PLATO: SUMMARY AND MEANING

The Allegory Of The Cave is a theory put forward by Plato, concerning human perception.

Plato claimed that knowledge gained through the senses is no more than opinion and that, in

order to have real knowledge, we must gain it through philosophical reasoning.

The Allegory of the Cave by Plato

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato distinguishes between people who mistake sensory

knowledge for the truth and people who really do see the truth. It goes like this:

The Cave

Imagine a cave, in which there are three prisoners. The prisoners are tied to some

rocks, their arms and legs are bound and their head is tied so that they cannot look at

anything but the stonewall in front of them.

These prisoners have been here since birth and have never seen outside of the cave.

Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between them is a raised walkway.

People outside the cave walk along this walkway carrying things on their head including;

animals, plants, wood and stone.

The Shadows
 So, imagine that you are one of the prisoners. You cannot look at anything behind or to

the side of you you must look at the wall in front of you.

When people walk along the walkway, you can see shadows of the objects they are

carrying cast on to the wall.

If you had never seen the real objects ever before, you would believe that the shadows

of objects were real.

The Game

Plato suggests that the prisoners would begin a game of guessing which shadow would

appear next.

If one of the prisoners were to correctly guess, the others would praise him as clever

and say that he were a master of nature.

The Escape

One of the prisoners then escapes from their bindings and leaves the cave.

He is shocked at the world he discovers outside the cave and does not believe it can be

real.

As he becomes used to his new surroundings, he realizes that his former view of reality

was wrong.

He begins to understand his new world, and sees that the Sun is the source of life and

goes on an intellectual journey where he discovers beauty and meaning

He sees that his former life, and the guessing game they played is useless.

The Return

The prisoner returns to the cave, to inform the other prisoners of his findings.

They do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free.
 The Allegory of The Cave by Plato The Meaning

The Allegory of the cave by Plato should not be taken at face value. In essays and exams,

whoever is marking it expects you to have a deeper understanding of the meaning of the

theory. You can then use these to think about criticisms and then to form your own opinion.
Students Save Money as you shop with Top CashBack.

The Cave

In Platos theory, the cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from

what we see and hear in the world empirical evidence. The cave shows that believers

of empirical knowledge are trapped in a cave of misunderstanding.

The Shadows

The Shadows represent the perceptions of those who believe empirical evidence

ensures knowledge. If you believe that what you see should be taken as truth, then you
 are merely seeing a shadow of the truth. In Platos opinion you are a pleb if you believe

this (their insult for those who are not Philosophers)!

The Game

The Game represents how people believe that one person can be a master when they

have knowledge of the empirical world. Plato is demonstrating that this master does not

actually know any truth, and suggesting that it is ridiculous to admire someone like this.

The Escape

The escaped prisoner represents the Philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside of the

cave and outside of the senses.

The Sun represents philosophical truth and knowledge

His intellectual journey represents a philosophers journey when finding truth and

wisdom

The Return

The other prisoners reaction to the escapee returning represents that people are scared

of knowing philosophical truths and do not trust philosophers.

It is always recommended that you read the original text by Plato to reach the top grades. If you

would like to purchase The Republic by Plato, click here! We also found a FREE kindle

version.

The Allegory of the Cave is both literal in terms of Platos Theory of Forms and symbolic in
terms of the real world. I will explain the symbolism as that is what your question asked.

The cave itself and the shackles that bind the prisoners can represent multiple things:
adults/parents, school/education, and/or societys forced conventions. In addition, the
guard serves as an enforcer, someone who thinks they know what is best for the prisoners.
Because the prisoners stay in the cave since childhood, it further supports my previous
claims. We are taught at a young age to see things in a certain way; we are not allowed to
find things out ourselves. As a result, we are led to believe that what we are seeing is the
truth, when that is not the case. One of the prisoners is freed from his shackles and sees the
outside world, which is new and blinding. This person can represent a non-conformist or a
leader of some sort. Like Nietzsches Superman, he breaks away from the standard morals
and discovers life for him. Only a few people have this ability. When the escapee comes back
to convince the others to leave, they refuse and nearly kill him. For years these poor
prisoners have been tricked into believing lies. And, given the chance to discover the truth,
they would decline it. The prisoners are a metaphor for the ignorance of todays society.
They are stubborn and would rather stick to their conventional beliefs than to gain wisdom.