EXCERPT FROM THE REPUBLIC
By Plato, as told by ME.
Widely know as "Allegory of the Cave", this excerpt details a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, in which they discuss human nature concerning ignorance, and refusing to move past that ignorance even in the face of reality. Socrates presents this through a philosophical symbolization: The Cave. More specifically, human beings born in the darkness of a cave and living out their lives in that same cave, ignorant of the greater world.
They are bound by chains to this cave, and the most they know of the outside world exists only as shadows and outlines to them. But, what would theoretically happen should these prisoners be allowed to go free? Socrates presents this scenario to Glaucon; he explains in detail how such a person, formally chained in the darkness, would react to being shown the real world. How would this person react to the light, of which he is not accustomed? And if all the shadows he once gave names to were revealed for what they truley were, would he go mad?
These are the scenarios Socrates presents and gives answers to throughout the passage. In addition he also posits an additional sequence of events in which the former prisoner brings this new knowledge back to his former people. Their reactions and the eventual fate of the prisoner, including the reasons why, are all detailed here. And not just the fates of the specific prisoner are theorized here, but in the end, The Cave is used to parable the fates of most of those who try to bring truth to those who have their own reality are presented.
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