Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

Philosophy can be interpreted in many different ways by many different people. Some choose to deny the true knowledge that philosophy brings to light, which can make a man ignorant and naïve. Philosophers take on the responsibility of sharing their knowledge with others, but truly grasping this knowledge requires accepting the wrong that one may have believed to be true and correct his whole life which goes against human nature. All human beings want to gain knowledge, but doing so may present the task of admitting personal mistakes and misconceptions. The Allegory of the Cave parallels Socrates’ struggle, as a philosopher, to enlighten the ignorant people in the world through his teachings of truth and happiness, only to be bitterly rejected
Prisoners have been held captive in the cave “from their childhood, and having their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads” (Jowett 316). These prisoners in the darkness of the cave represent all of the ignorant people that do not know anything other than what they have been told their whole lives. These people do not have opinions of their own, nor have they been given the opportunity to experience life for themselves because they have been told what to believe since they were born. Socrates says: “To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images” (316). The shadows are the truth to these prisoners because that is all they know so far in their lives. They must speak only amongst themselves about what they have seen, giving names to the shadows, which are reality to
After the freed prisoner was exposed to the upper world, “he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow prisoners” (318). He pitied them and wanted to tell them about the upper world. He wants to enlighten his fellow prisoners back in the cave so they can experience true understanding and knowledge of the real world outside of the cave. Socrates says: “I think that the freed prisoner would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner” (318). He wants all of the prisoners to experience what he has experienced, which has brought him to a deeper understanding of his past state of mind in the cave. He has come to the realization that the prisoners’ knowledge is unjustly limited to the cave around them. The prisoners in the cave thought that “it was better not even to think of ascending; and if anyone tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would out him to death” (319). They threatened to kill anyone who tried to release any prisoner and force them to take the ascent. They are too scared of what they do not know that they would rather die than take the chance of going on the ascent to the outside world. Socrates’ accusers also wanted to put him to death just as the prisoners in the cave wanted to put the prisoner who