Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Philosophy Philos – love, like, seeking Sophia - wisdom, knowledge, truth

Plato father of philosophy BCE Teacher of Aristotle Studied under Socrates Adapted Socrates’ style as his own- seeking truth through question and answer For Plato the first step in attaining wisdom is knowing that which you do not know.

The Allegory of the Cave The Myth of the Cave The Parable of the Cave

Philosophy begins with wonder. This wondering and questioning begins early in our lives. Children are the greatest philosophers since they are not stressed and they think and ask questions

The goal of philosophy is to get us to answer these questions for ourselves – to make up our own minds about our self, life, knowledge, art, religion and morality. Philosophy examines these beliefs. The aim is not to reject them but learn why we hold them and to examine whether there are good reasons to continue holding them

In this way, our basic beliefs about reality and life become our own: we accept them because we have thought them through on our own, not because our parents, peers, and society have conditioned us to believe them. Therefore, we gain a kind of independence and freedom, also known as autonomy.

The goal of philosophy is autonomy, the ability to direct and control your own life, the freedom of being able to decide for yourself what you will believe in by using your own reasoning. Autonomy is an essential asset to becoming an adult

The Allegory of the Cave describes the human situation in a parable about ignorance and learning.

The prisoners are like ourselves. They see nothing of themselves or each other except the shadows and the shadows of the objects behind them

Now imagine the prisoners could talk with each other. Suppose their voices echoed off the walls that the voices seem to come from their own shadows.

They are ignorantly happy.

One prisoner is forced to leave the cave. He can’t see because the light is too bright. He can’t name the objects. He would think the shadows he saw before were more true than these objects. When in the full light of the sun he would suffer greatly and be furious at being dragged upward.

After some time he would be able to look at the sun and contemplate its nature. He would conclude that the sun produces the seasons and the years and that it controls everything in the visible world. He will understand that it is in a way the cause of everything that he and his fellow prisoners used to see.

He will now say, “ I didn’t realize how much I didn’t know.”

Suppose the released prisoner now recalled the cave and what passed for wisdom among his fellows there. Wouldn’t he be happy about his new situation and feel sorry for them? Wouldn’t he rather endure anything than go back to thinking and living like they did? Yet, if he went back and told them wouldn’t he appear ridiculous? Men would say of him that he had gone up and had come back down with his eyesight ruined and that it was better not even to think of ascending. In fact, if they caught anyone trying to free them and lead them up to the light, they would try to kill him.

The prison is the world we see with our eyes; the light of the fire is like the power of our sun. The climb upward out of the cave into the upper world is the ascent of the mind into the domain of true knowledge.

You can never go back to not knowing.

Plato wrote this parable more than 2000 years ago. It is important for us because it explains much about what philosophy is.

1. Philosophy is the activity of journeying upward from the dark cave to the light. Studying the theories of important philosophers is not just to memorize them but to help you learn how to “do” philosophy. More importantly, you can use their insights to shed light on your own philosophical journey. It is the journey – the activity – that is important, not the products you bring back from your journey.

2. Philosophy is a difficult activity. The journey upward is hard because it involves questioning the most basic beliefs that each of us accepts about ourselves and the universe. It may lead you in directions that society does not support. It may lead you toward views that others around you reject.

It is also hard because philosophy requires us to think critically, consistently, and carefully about our fundamental beliefs. It requires intellectual discipline and the hard work of thinking things through as carefully and precisely as we can

A teacher can help “by dragging you up the steep and rugged ascent from the cave and forces you out into the full light of the sun.” The teacher does this by getting the learner to ask herself the hard questions that the student is reluctant to ask on her own.

3. The aim of philosophy is freedom. Philosophy aims at breaking us free of the prejudices and unthinking habits we have long absorbed from those around us, so that we can move toward more reflective views that are truly our own.

4. Plato’s allegory suggests that the beliefs that philosophy examines are the most basic concerns of human existence. To do philosophy is to love wisdom. It is to grapple with and seek to understand the most basic issues in our lives