Blog 2: The Allegory Of The Cave

The allegory to the cave is a fictional story, written by the Greek philosopher Plato in the book called The Republic, where he writes a dialogue between his teacher Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon to show the ways in which we believe and perceive in what is reality. The story takes place in a cave, where he imagines a group of prisoners who have lived and been chained, arms and legs held and chained in place, in that cave for almost their whole lives. These group of people face a blank wall and watch shadows made by things that pass in front of a fire behind them. They make stories and assumptions to what they believe is going on behind the fire. The people making the shadows are using wooden and iron objects to cause these images. They believe that these shadows and sounds that they see and hear are in fact real because that is all they've seen and heard. Socrates adds that if one prisoner is set free that he would not recognize these objects if seen in reality and that the prisoner will view the real truth as aching and would want to go back to the shadows and images they've been so comfortable seeing all this time. Now accepting the fact that these shadows aren't true the prisoner is forced to step out of the cave and be face to face with the sun. The prisoner would now try to recognize the shadow and its reflections as he has done his whole life from the wall. Eventually he will adjust to the sunlight and be aware his surroundings and realize that the sun has much to do with everything around him and that he is finally aware of truth and reality. He will understand the truth and return to the cave from where he lived all of his life. The other prisoners will laugh and judge because they cannot imagine anything beyond the wall and its shadows. So at this point, the freed prisoner represents a leader. He becomes the leader because he can see better than the rest because he's lived it and is now able to lead and govern with truth and goodness. He is expected to take care of them and educate them.