Notes on "the allegory of the cave"
snippets put together from various authors, copied and pasted:
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 puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these puppets, the real objects, that pass behind them. What the prisoners see and hear are shadows and echoes cast by objects that they do not see.
Such prisoners would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the things they see on the wall (the shadows) were real; they would know nothing of the real causes of the shadows.
Marc Cohen
from http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm
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If he were living today, Plato might replace his rather awkward cave metaphor with a movie theater, with the projector replacing the fire, the film replacing the objects which cast shadows, the shadows on the cave wall with the projected movie on the screen, and the echo with the loudspeakers behind the screen. The essential point is that the prisoners in the cave are not seeing reality, but only a shadowy representation of it. The importance of the allegory lies in Plato's belief that there are invisible truths lying under the apparent surface of things which only the most enlightened can grasp. Used to the world of illusion in the cave, the prisoners at first resist enlightenment, as students resist education.
posted by Jon at 9:25 AM
2 Comments:
Jon,
I'm glad you noted that your comments were snippets from other authors, cut and pasted. But as one of those authors (the entire first 2 paragraphs are taken verbatim from my http://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm) I would prefer that you actually cite your sources. This includes giving the name of the author and the source from which the quotation is taken. That way, readers who are interested can delve deeper into the subject. And you will be giving credit to the author of the ideas that appear in you post.
You're absolutely correct Marc, and I apologize. Thank you for your article, and your comment. Usually I try to document these things so that I can easily find them again online...I also treat this thing as something of a personal information archive, and sometimes forget that others might actually find this site when they do word searches.
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