The Allegory of the Cave
The Allegory of the Cave Summary Socrates begins by asking Glaucon to image the following scene. A deep cave holds chained prisoners at its bottom. The prisoners are only able to look forward at a wall. Behind the prisoners is an elevated plane and a small wall where statues are carried back and forth and various sounds are emitted. Behind the elevated plane is a fire. The fire and the statues together cast shadows on the wall that the chained prisoners face. So the prisoners only see the shadows of the statues and hear sounds that echo off of the wall they face. The prisoners, since they have been chained since birth, believe that the shadows are the real objects and the sounds are coming from the shadows. If a prisoner were released and he discovered the fire, the elevated plane, and the statues, he would, at first, think that the shadows are more real that the statues. His familiarity with the shadows and u...
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