The Allegory of the Cave: Addressing Problems



Introduction 

The Allegory of the Cave is an essay on perception by Plato.  In the essay, there are people who lived in a cave since their childhood, hands and neck chained to the walls of the cave. A light source nearby enables people in cave to see shadows of passerby. Plato writes that if those people were conversing, they would most likely talk about the shadows they saw. 

One man is then let go from the cave. As he first steps into sunlight, his eyes hurt. It takes time to adjust but he can eventually see real objects and realizes shadows are mere projections and not real. His perception of what is real changes as he ascents into a level with more light. 

When the man goes back inside the cave and tells people of what he saw, they do not accept him. That comes naturally as he accuses the reality of the cave-people to be unreal. 


Problem

As the man is let go from the cave, his senses hurt because he has never seen sunlight. He is unable to adjust to change in the beginning, but gradually, it becomes easy. He can then see reflections in the water and even real objects. This makes him realize shadows are mere projections and what he thought was real was completely false. 

When he returns to the cave and shares what he saw, the people cannot accept it. That which he could see before, he cannot anymore as his senses cannot now adjust to the dark. After all, he is accusing the reality of the cave-people to be unreal. In the essay, Plato’s narrative leads to the man being killed by the cave-people. They further decide to not let anyone else leave the cave as the first man came with a distorted vision of reality, at least from their perspective. 


Conclusion

The allegory demonstrates the conflict between knowledge and belief. It also shows how an enlightened person is perceived by society. Like the cave-people, people in real life find it difficult to change their stance on their beliefs. Change is difficult and therefore gradual.

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