The Allegory of the cave is an allegory written by Plato with the purpose to represent the way a philosopher gains knowledge. This allegory is a fictional dialogue between Socrates and Glaucon, where Socrates compares the issues appearance vs. reality, education vs. ignorance. There are two types of knowledge represented in this allegory, the one that is told and expected to be believed and accepted; and the one that is learned by a person’s own experiences through life. The writing is organized in a way in which the author tells a story in a sequence of logical events that makes the reader understand better. It wasn’t really clear for me the way he described the scene metaphorically and it was difficult to visualize the scenario to realize the purpose behind it because of the rarity of it. That’s why I went through it so many times, but once I was able to understand what was going on and where the point was, I could see that the way he explained and the fanciful evidence he used was very strong.
Plato writes about Socrates describing a scene where there are chained people in a dark cave. They have been there since their childhood and they can barely move their heads. Behind them, at the distance, there is a blazing fire, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a wall meant for objects to pass. Because of their limited vision (lack of movement), those men can only see their own shadow and the shadow of different sculptures that pass over the wall, which are carried by other men they can’t see. One of those prisoners is released and starts walking around the cave. He is very confused by what he sees but finally he realizes that the shadows are just a representation of what is really there. The prisoner is forced to go out of the cave, his eyes begin to adjust to the sun light, and he can’t look at anything more than shadows. Accustomed to the light, he begins to see other objects like trees, flowers and houses; and he ...