The Cave Myth: Plato’s Philosophy on Knowledge
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
Plato explicitly states that the myth serves as a metaphor for our nature, our education, and our lack thereof. It illustrates issues related to the theory of knowledge. However, it also carries significant implications for other philosophical domains, including ontology, anthropology, politics, and ethics. The myth describes our situation concerning knowledge: just as prisoners in a cave see only shadows of objects, we live in ignorance when our concerns are limited to the world perceived by our senses. Only philosophy offers release, allowing us to leave the cave and enter the real world, the World of Ideas.
The Cave and Its Prisoners
Plato asks us to imagine ourselves as prisoners inhabiting a subterranean cavern. These prisoners are chained from birth, immobile, able to see only the back wall of the cavern. Behind them, on a higher level, a fire burns. Between the fire and the prisoners, a raised walkway exists, bordered by a low wall, similar to a screen behind which puppeteers display their puppets to an audience. Along this walkway, people parade, some speaking, carrying various objects representing different things (animals, trees, artificial items). Because the wall is between these people and the prisoners, only the shadows of the objects they carry are visible. In this state, the prisoners believe these shadows and the echoes of voices they hear are the only reality.
The Journey to Enlightenment
Plato notes that a released prisoner would gradually discover increasingly real levels of existence. Initially, they might look at the objects within the cave and the firelight. Then, they would exit the cave and first see the shadows of objects, followed by their reflections in water, and finally, the objects themselves. Ultimately, they would perceive the Sun, realizing it causes the seasons, governs the visible world, and is the source of everything they had previously seen. Recalling their former dwelling, the existing wisdom, and their fellow prisoners, they would feel pity and perhaps consider their past life unbearable. Nevertheless, they would feel compelled to return to the underworld. Despite the risk of death in attempting to clumsily explain their discoveries to the world of shadows, and facing laughter and scorn from their peers, they would feel obligated to help in their release.
Interpreting the Allegory
Plato provides the key to interpreting the myth: we can compare the visible realm to the prison-cave, and the fire within it to the power of the sun. The contemplation of the external world (the World of Ideas) is analogous to the soul’s journey towards the intelligible realm. He also points out that the ultimate and most challenging goal in the knowable world is the Idea of the Good, symbolized by the sun, the last object perceived by the freed prisoner. Just as the sun in the visible world creates light and causes growth, the Idea of the Good in the intelligible realm produces truth and intelligence, representing the reality necessary for wise action in both private and public life.