123 School Work

In depth reflection on the Myth of the Cave

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        Plato's "myth of the cave" parable is an argument that we cannot be sure we know reality. In it, a group of people is chained inside a cave, only able to look forward. A fire behind them casts shadows on the cave wall, which is the only reality they know. One of them breaks free and ventures outside and, when he returns to tell them of the world of sun and trees, is ostracized and attacked as a heretic. What is the point of this myth? We - non-philosophers - are like the prisoners in the cave. We are content to believe that mere images are realty. The man who leaves the cave is the true philosopher. First he moves beyond images of things (images on the walls of the cave) to things themselves (the objects that create the images) to the world of the forms (the objects outside of the cave) and finally to the Form of the Good itself (the Sun). The myth ends with the Philosopher returning to the cave to try to enlighten his fellow prisoners...