Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Brief outline of the Allegory of the cave;

Plato illustrates his ideas about human knowledge in reality through the allegory of cave.

Plato tells us to imagine a dark, large cave connected to the outside world by a long passage. In the cave with their backs to the entrance are some prisoners tied up and unable to move. Behind them is a bright fire, people move to and fro behind them all day so their shadows are projected on the wall and their voices are echoed. Plato says that all the prisoners ever experience in reality are those shadows and the echoes of these shadows.The shadows and echoes constitued all reality. 

One day a prisoner escapes, the journey out of the cave is painful, the light of the fire hurts his eyes. The sun light blinds him as he leaves the cave. When he returns to the cave to enlightened the other prisoners, he is mocked…