Blog 5: The Allegory in the Cave "Plato"

In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates tells a story to his student Glaucon to explain how people deny the possibility to walk for other ways and is accustomed to live in a limited world of appearance which is represented in the story as shadows. Socrates starts the story showing the prisoners in the cave tied with chain which doesn’t let them move, as a representation of the people enclosed in their own ideas without the possibility to be out of them. Then he said that far behind the prisoners there is a fire, and in the middle of the fire and them is a raised way which when people walk through it creates shadows which are the only thing that prisoners can see and believe as a real world. In this part Socrates shows how we develop ideas according to appearances and believe of the things we consider real due to how it look from outside which are not more than illusions, because we’re just limited to live with the superficial ideas we are trapped in our perfect world of naivety.

The story continues with the release of one prisoner which was compelled to stand up and look around him suffering sharp pains, and then the firelight makes difficult the possibility to see clearly the things around him. Next somebody told him that what he had seen all the time was just a fantasy, and now he was confused looking how the things start becoming clear and more realistic than before. Then he were kicked out of the cave and exposed to the sun being impossible to see something while accomplished his eyes to the light, noting that his past life wasn’t real and there was a great world to explore out there. In my opinion, Socrates in this part was trying to explain that we can be exposed to be out of the cave due to some circumstances which would giving us other point of view much clears than before that could change something usual in our lives, such as ideas, beliefs, and the ignorance of the realty. The pain is seen in a symbolic way of how difficult is to face the barriers to change, such as doubts and our own past ideas. The things outside of the cave is the world of the ideas, which the knowledge is represented by the sun that is who brings clarity to everything out there for better perception.

Finally Socrates shows the prisoner out of the cave fascinated of the new things, and he felt the necessity to tell this to the other prisoners in the cave and decides to go back to take them out, but when he was telling that extraordinary story they didn’t believe him, because it sounds so wonderful to be true and when he went back to the cave the possibility to see the shadows wasn’t good because his eyes weren’t yet accomplished to darkness, Therefore they doesn’t wanted lose the ability to see their realty which is the shadows world, and they warned with kill him if he release them. There is no another symbolic representation of the prisoner out of the cave more that a philosopher, which is a person who attain the knowledge when he face to reality and starts getting logic conclusions. A philosopher is also always interested in shows to people the real truth, although this will cause his death, as happened to Socrates in real life.

In conclusion, this story is a parable which shows that we can be out of the cave or stay in there; we just need to make the decision. The only risk is to achieve the knowledge facing the chains that is stopping us to stay in the world of the ignorance or darkness unlike to be in the world of light or ideas conquering it in their entire splendor.