Plato’s Allegory of the Cave
About the Philosopher
About the Philosopher
Born into a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427–347 B.C.) is one of the most important figures of the Ancient Greek world and the entire history of Western thought. Before he turned to philosophy, Plato was preparing for a career in politics, however, the trial and eventual execution of his mentor, Socrates, (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. The death of his mentor made him abandon his political career and turn to philosophy, opening a school on the outskirts of Athens dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Unlike his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings were in the format of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker.
What is the Allegory of the Cave?
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a metaphorical explanation by Plato to entertain the complexities of belief versus knowledge. It is a short excerpt from the beginning of Plato’s book, The Republic (1). The allegory explores how the amount of education received by a person affects their thoughts. It captures one of Plato’s main philosophical theories, which is how the existence of the two worlds can be captured, namely through the sensible world and the intelligible world.
Chained Caves
The story begins with three prisoners who have been chained since they were children in an underground cave. Their hands, feet, and necks are chained so that they are unable to move. All they can see is what faces in front of them, which is the back wall of the cave, where shadows are cast by objects cast in front of a fire behind them. The people holding the objects in front of the fire are hidden behind a wall, so the chained people can only see the shadows. Over time, they are used to seeing shadows and believe that they are real and even begin to co-construct the world between them, sharing a dialogue surrounding the images cast in front of them. They have no way of knowing that the shadows are just representations of real objects because their necks are chained to the wall, and they can not look behind them.
When One is Freed from the Chains
After that, Plato continues by imagining one of the three men unshackled, and free. The former prisoner is then guided by someone to turn around and see the fire. The brightness of the fire would hurt his eyes, preventing him from seeing the objects in front of it, this causes him to resume to his chained position. But looking again at the shadows on the wall, he would think that they were reality itself and not the indistinct objects in front of the fire.
However, Plato then hypothesised that someone would persuade the former prisoner to get up and pull him towards the elevated entrance of the cave. Once outside the cave, the former prisoner would be terrified of the unfamiliarity of the world around him, in addition to the pain and blindness caused by the sunlight. However, his eyes would slowly adjust to the world around him. Shadows would be the first thing he would notice because that is what he had become accustomed to seeing during his many years spent inside the cave. Then, he would be able to see people and trees, and finally, he would be able to look at the stars and the sun itself. Plato says that once the prisoner is able to look at the sun, only then will he be able to think clearly about it.
Convincing the Prisoners to Turn Around
Now that the former prisoner has seen the outside world, he had an urge to share his discovery with the other prisoners. And so, he goes back into the cave, but as soon as he enters it, he realises that his eyes have become used to the bright light of the outside world and have become blind to the cave’s darkness. While approaching the other prisoners, he stumbles around and struggles to find them in the dark. The prisoners notice this, and express that leaving the cave would mean the same thing would happen to them. He tries to persuade his companions that beyond the cave, there is a more real world, and what they saw were mere shadows of the real objects. He tries to point out the deep-rooted ignorance of the fellow prisoners, who are trapped within their own confinement of pseudo intellectualism. But the prisoners try to resist enlightenment and condemn him for moral misconduct and loss of ethical values. Plato concludes that if anyone attempted to forcefully take these prisoners to the outside world, they would be ready to kill to avoid being harmed by the outside world.
According to Plato, the fire inside the cave is a man-made source of light, and the shadows are nothing but the work of artists. Plato explained that fire represents the prevailing beliefs and teachings of a period. Artists then play on these prevailing beliefs and present their artistic interpretations through shadows or hatred for having the temerity to question the basic dogmas that structure society.
Interpretation of the Allegory of the Cave: The Banking System
The allegory of the cave is a metaphorical explanation that can be interpreted in many ways, but philosopher Paulo Frerie, calls this view the baking model of education. The banking system is an educational structure whereby teachers deliver a curriculum with full authority over their students, and the students are presumed to have no prior knowledge about anything and their purpose is to act as passive listeners in the classroom as teachers “fill” them with information. The students also have no ideas or opinions in what they’re going to learn or how they’re approaching the topic. Instead, the teacher makes the decisions and often any differing opinions or thoughts from the students are discouraged. Socrates was vocally against the banking system, and mentions that what his allegory has shown, is that:
“the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already, and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light with the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge, the mind, can only by the movement of the soul be turned from the world becoming of that being,”.
The allegory presents a relation between ignorance and understanding. It is this distinction between these two that we can call education. In the allegory, we see the prisoners in the cave do not want to be free as they are comfortable in their own ignorance. The prisoners are hostile to people who are provided with information in order to be free too. This is demonstrated in the allegory when the freed prisoner returns to the cave. The people in the cave represent society and Plato is suggesting that we are the prisoners simply looking at the shadow of things.
The process of getting out of the cave can be compared to getting educated but the process of getting out of the cave is difficult as we are often blinded by the light. The journey of getting out of the cave requires help. This implies that throughout our education, there can sometimes be a struggle — the struggle to see the truth. As humans are used to being ignorant, seeing truth can be painful. The former prisoner who was able to leave the cave would question his beliefs whereas the prisoners in the cave accept what they are shown as their only source of information are the shadows cast by the light of the fire that is behind them. Although they do not see things exactly how they are, they are also not aware of the true nature of the things that they see. To an extent, they are ignorant, but they are not lacking in all knowledge.
The main goal of education is to assist us in discovering the truth rather than to tell us what it is. According to Plato, education enables us to have fresh perspectives. Hence, education changes additionally as people’s perceptions of the truth shift. Everyone has the ability to learn, but not everyone has the same level of motivation as the prisoners do. You must be willing to discover the truth in order to be educated, and desire and resistance are significant factors when it comes to education. To liberate one’s spirit from the grip of darkness and chains, there must be desire.
It is possible to interpret the individuals walking down the street carrying the objects as the dominant elite in today’s society. The state, the media, and religious figures are only a few examples. People’s views and ideas are influenced by and determined by these authorities. The person who guided the former prisoner out of the cave was like the teacher. The teacher does not educate the pupil, rather, aids in guiding the pupil towards the truth, out of the shadows and into the light. The allegory frequently uses the images of light and darkness. From the beginning to the finish, Plato describes how hard it is to shift from the confines of the cave and darkness to the freedom and knowledge of the light. The transformation is a process of education. Darkness and light represent our human conditions on two levels. Plato describes humanity as being “in the dark,” and unaware of what is truly in front of our eyes. As humans we are unaware of what is beyond such light and we are stuck in a fixed position, in darkness not knowing what lies beyond life in the cave. However, as the freed prisoner becomes accustomed to the light they become aware now of things that they never knew. The shadows of the objects they saw on the cave walls that they were only able to speculate about become clear and start taking shape.
Furthermore, Plato expresses that the truth is seeing something as it is. It is the understanding of something through the light of the idea. The prisoners are unable to see the shadows as what they truly are because they refused to turn around. They see the shadows as something that passes in front of them as “distinct shapes and forms”. What they see is not what shows itself, but the prisoners can only take what they see to be true. They have some relation to truth but are not completely in the truth as they are unable to see what we see as shadows. Only when the prisoner is freed, are they able to see what they first saw and what is now shown. This process can be used as an image of education.
Education is not solely enforced just to change our practices or ideas. It is a process that helps us guide ourselves towards the truth. Similarly, to when the prisoners must change their orientation to realise the shadows were not the real objects. In the allegory, it states that, “they cannot move and are only able to see in front of them since the chains are arranged in such a manner that they are prevented from turning their heads around.
[Written by: Harshaall. Edited by: Balvin Dhaliwal]