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Age of Enlightenment

Plato's allegory of the cave describes prisoners chained in a cave who can only see shadows on the cave wall from a fire behind them. They mistake these shadows for reality. When released, they realize the shadows were not real. The allegory suggests that people are philosophically ignorant, mistaking appearances for reality like the prisoners. Escaping the cave represents achieving philosophical enlightenment by understanding the true forms that cast the shadows.

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Angelie Umambac
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28 views2 pages

Age of Enlightenment

Plato's allegory of the cave describes prisoners chained in a cave who can only see shadows on the cave wall from a fire behind them. They mistake these shadows for reality. When released, they realize the shadows were not real. The allegory suggests that people are philosophically ignorant, mistaking appearances for reality like the prisoners. Escaping the cave represents achieving philosophical enlightenment by understanding the true forms that cast the shadows.

Uploaded by

Angelie Umambac
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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In the allegory, Plato likens people untutored in the theory of forms to prisoners chained

in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they can see is the wall of the cave. Behind
them burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a parapet, along which
puppeteers can walk. The puppeteers, who are behind the prisoners, hold up the
puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see
these puppets, the real objects, which pass behind them. What the prisoners see and
hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see. The prisoners
therefore mistake appearance for reality. They think the things they see on the walls are
real. Though obviously they are wrong and Plato’s point is that they would be taking the
terms in their language to refer to the shadows that pass before their eyes, rather than
to the real things that cast the shadows.

Plato’s point is that in terms of our language are not ‘names’ of the physical objects that
we can see. They are actually names of things that we cannot see, things that we can
only grasp with the mind. This statement refers back to Plato’s theory upon what we
presume is reality is in fact mere the opposite.

When the prisoners are released, they can turn their heads and see the real objects.
Then they realise the error. Plato’s aim is to describe what is necessary for us to
achieve this reflective understanding. But even without it, it remains true that our very
ability to think and to speak depends on the forms. The prisoners may learn what
certain objects are as they would have seen the shadows of them but if they referred
back to a certain object thinking of the shadows they would be mistaken.

The allegory of the cave overall, suggests that people are ‘philosophically ignorant’, and
are like the prisoners chained to the floor of the cave. They can only see the shadows
playing on the back of the cave. They assume that these shadows are in fact the whole
of reality.

The world outside represents the world of the forms. The prisoner who escapes is like
the person who achieves ‘philosophical enlightenment.’

Age of Enlightenment
The Age of Enlightenment was a cultural movement of intellectuals in the 17th and 18th centuries,
which began first in Europe and later in the American colonies. Its purpose was to reform society
using reason, challenge ideas grounded in tradition and faith, and advance knowledge through the
scientific method. It promoted scientific thought, skepticism and intellectual interchange and opposed
superstition, intolerance and some abuses of power by the church and the state. The ideas of the
Enlightenment have had a major impact on the culture, politics, and governments of the Western
world. Originating about 1650 to 1700, it was sparked by philosophers Baruch Spinoza, John Locke,
Pierre Bayle, Voltaire and physicist Isaac Newton. Ruling princes often endorsed and fostered
figures and even attempted to apply their ideas of government in what was known as enlightened
absolutism. The Scientific Revolution is closely tied to the Enlightenment, as its discoveries
overturned many traditional concepts and introduced new perspectives on nature and man's place
within it. The Enlightenment flourished until about 1790–1800, after which the emphasis on reason
gave way to Romanticism's emphasis on emotion, and a Counter-Enlightenment gained force.

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