The Analogy Of The Cave Flashcards
What Happens in the Analogy of the Cave?
- There are a number of prisoners in a cave chained to chairs and facing the back of the cave. They have been prisoners their whole lives and know no different.
There is a wall in between the prisoner where the only light in the cave comes from - a fire.
Behind this wall, other people are walking up and down and carrying statues on there heads.
What the prisoners chained to the chairs see is the the shadows cast by the stature in front of them. - The prisoners believe that the shadows are reality because that is all they see. If they hear people behind the wall speaking they assume these voices come from the shadows.
- One of the prisoners is then freed. At first they are confused and they do not understand.
They are then dragged outside the cave and emerges into sunlight. They try to flee back into the cave, but slowly their eyes adjust and they look up and see the importance of the sun.
They see that is supports life and the seasons, they do no want to return to the cave. - However, they then remember their friends in the cave and want to go back to teach them about reality.
When he gets back to the cave his eyes cannot adjust to the darkness and he cannot see clearly.
When he tells the prisoners his story they decide it is better not to go above ground and wish to put to death anyone who tries to free another prisoner.
What does the Cave represent?
The cave represents our world of appearances where we are trapped and have no knowledge of true reality.
What do the prisoners represent?
They represent us trapped in the world of appearances (the cave) we do not know true reality is and believe that the shadows are real and there is no world outside the cave.
What do the shadows represent?
The shadows represent the intimidation’s of the forms in our world of appearances. We think that these shadows are reality and real, when they are actually just copies of the true forms.
What does the escape and the escaped prisoner represent?
The escaped prisoner represents a philosopher.
The escape represents a journey of a philosopher who questioned the world of appearances and finally broke free of their chains to gain true knowledge of reality.
What does the fire represent?
Knowledge.
What does the sun represent?
The sun represents the highest form of good. It gives life to everything and controls the seasons etc. Without the form of the good/sun the other forms would not exist and it is therefore needed to give goodness to everything.
What does the outside world represent?
It represents the world of the forms where true knowledge lies. There are no shadows or imitations of the forms but the true forms that are timeless and perfect.
What does the escaped prisoner’s return to the cave represent?
The prisoners return represents a philosophers duty to educate others about the real world - once they have learned the truth they have a duty to return and challenge the ideas of reality.
The prisoner’s refusal to believe there is an outside world represents society’s unwillingness & stubbornness to question what they are told and what they see through there senses.
