The Allegory of The Cave’ by Plato: Summary and Meaning

POSTED SEPTEMBER 21, 2012 PHILOSOPHYZER

Summary of Platos Cave

The ‘Allegory Of The Cave’ is a theory put forward by Plato, concerning human perception. Plato claimed
that knowledge gained through the senses is no more than opinion and that, in order to have real
knowledge, we must gain it through philosophical reasoning.

‘The Allegory of the Cave’ by Plato

In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato distinguishes between people who mistake sensory knowledge for the
truth and people who really do see the truth. It goes like this:

The Cave

Imagine a cave, in which there are three prisoners. The prisoners are tied to some rocks, their arms and
legs are bound and their head is tied so that they cannot look at anything but the stonewall in front of
them.

These prisoners have been here since birth and have never seen outside of the cave.

Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between them is a raised walkway.

People outside the cave walk along this walkway carrying things on their head including; animals, plants,
wood and stone.

The Shadows
So, imagine that you are one of the prisoners. You cannot look at anything behind or to the side of you –
you must look at the wall in front of you.

When people walk along the walkway, you can see shadows of the objects they are carrying cast on to
the wall.

If you had never seen the real objects ever before, you would believe that the shadows of objects were
‘real.’

The Game

Plato suggests that the prisoners would begin a ‘game’ of guessing which shadow would appear next.

If one of the prisoners were to correctly guess, the others would praise him as clever and say that he
were a master of nature.

The Escape

One of the prisoners then escapes from their bindings and leaves the cave.

He is shocked at the world he discovers outside the cave and does not believe it can be real.

As he becomes used to his new surroundings, he realizes that his former view of reality was wrong.

He begins to understand his new world, and sees that the Sun is the source of life and goes on an
intellectual journey where he discovers beauty and meaning

He see’s that his former life, and the guessing game they played is useless.

The Return

The prisoner returns to the cave, to inform the other prisoners of his findings.

They do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free.

‘ The Allegory of The Cave’ by Plato – The Meaning

The Allegory of the cave by Plato should not be taken at face value. In essays and exams, whoever is
marking it expects you to have a deeper understanding of the meaning of the theory. You can then use
these to think about criticisms and then to form your own opinion.

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The Cave

In Plato’s theory, the cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and
hear in the world – empirical evidence. The cave shows that believers of empirical knowledge are
trapped in a ‘cave’ of misunderstanding.

The Shadows

The Shadows represent the perceptions of those who believe empirical evidence ensures knowledge. If
you believe that what you see should be taken as truth, then you are merely seeing a shadow of the
truth. In Plato’s opinion you are a ‘pleb’ if you believe this (their insult for those who are not
Philosophers)!

The Game

The Game represents how people believe that one person can be a ‘master’ when they have knowledge
of the empirical world. Plato is demonstrating that this master does not actually know any truth, and
suggesting that it is ridiculous to admire someone like this.

The Escape
The escaped prisoner represents the Philosopher, who seeks knowledge outside of the cave and outside
of the senses.

The Sun represents philosophical truth and knowledge

His intellectual journey represents a philosophers journey when finding truth and wisdom

The Return

The other prisoners reaction to the escapee returning represents that people are scared of knowing
philosophical truths and do not trust philosophers.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: Life Lessons on How to Think for Yourself.

by Mayo Oshin | Mental Models, Philosophy

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave: Life Lessons on How to Think for Yourself.

“In a time of universal deceit – telling the truth is a revolutionary act.”

—George Orwell

What is reality? Does your reality really exist?

Over 2,000 years ago, Plato, one of history’s most famous thinkers, explored these questions in his
famous “Allegory of the Cave”(audiobook)—Book VII of the Republic.

The “Allegory of the Cave” begins with a scene painted of a group of prisoners who have lived chained
to the wall of a dark cave their entire lives.

In Plato’s, The Republic (book), he writes:

“See human beings as though they were in an underground cave-like dwelling with its entrance, a long
one, open to the light across the whole width of the cave. They are in it from childhood with their legs
and necks in bonds so that they are fixed, seeing only in front of them, unable because of the bond to
turn their head all the way around.”

Every day, these people in the caves watched shadows projected on a blank wall. For them, these
shadows are real and they shape their entire reality.

Now imagine that one of the prisoner’s leaves the cave and walks outside into the sunshine.

For the first time in his life, he is exposed to sunshine and light. He can now finally see the “true” forms,
shapes and reality of the shadows he thought were real.

In this Allegory, Socrates asks, what would he think of his companions back in the cave? He’d probably
feel sorry for them and their limited reality.

Now, if he returned back to the cave and told them about what he saw, they’d probably laugh at him
and think he was crazy.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave explores the tension between the imagined reality that we think is “real”
(shadows) versus the reality that is the “truth” (outside the cave).

This is a basic explanation of the Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, but this TED video explains it better…

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Summary

How Does this Apply to Your Life?

The best way to learn from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, is to think of the people trapped in the cave as
majority of people in the world.
The cave people believed that the shadows they saw were the “truth,” just like majority of the world
who believe in and pursue shadows based on money, education, fame, love and so on.

These are generally the ideas and social norms that we’ve been told to stick to from childhood because
of the majority consensus.

Unfortunately, thinking like this often leads to a life of missed opportunities and mediocrity because
you’d never realise how much more of reality actually existed outside the “cave.”

What about the person who escaped the cave?

This represents the small handful of people who dare to think and act in a different way from the crowd.

They don’t have an imagined “shadow” reality because they’ve stepped outside their comfort zone into
the “sunshine” to uncover the true reality of life.

These people live a life with limitless possibilities and often change the course of history (think Martin
Luther King, Steve Jobs, Isaac Newton and so on).

It’s not because they’re better than everyone else that they’ve “escaped the cave”. It’s simply because
they’ve made a decision to consistently step outside their comfort zone, face their fears and think in a
unique way.

So, how can you escape this “cave”?

The key life lesson from Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is to question every assumption you have about the
reality you call “real.”
This is a powerful way to develop the skill of thinking for yourself and discovering your own unique
solutions to any problem.

I’ve covered one method of doing this based on Elon musk’s First principles way of thinking.

The more assumptions you question, the less likely you’ll make bad decisions and errors that could
significantly cost you.

It takes courage to step outside of your comfort zone and think differently than you’ve previously done.
But, the rewards are always worth it (see my testimonial on experimenting with intermittent fasting).

Finally, remember that it’s not enough to leave the cave. It’s much more important that you stay outside
of the cave.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is a reminder that not everyone will understand or be happy for you, when
you decide to change your habits and outlook on life.

Just like how the people in the cave responded to the escaped prisoner who returned—you can expect
friends and family to laugh at your “stupid” ideas.

It’s normal to face criticism once you leave the cave.

In the end, if you can’t convince them through your words, convince them through your actions—
because actions speak louder than words.

Food for thought:

What beliefs and assumptions (shadows) currently shape your reality?

How did you come to the conclusion that these assumptions were true?

Are you willing to question and adjust these assumptions? If so, what can you do on a daily basis to build
this habit?