The Republic Book VIIThe Allegory of the Cave”By Plato .docx

The Republic Book VII:
“The Allegory of the Cave”
By Plato
Written 360 B.C.E
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
NOTE: Plato, the most creative and influential of Socrates'
disciples, wrote dialogues, in which he frequently used the
figure of Socrates to espouse his own (Plato's) full-fledged
philosophy. In "The Republic," Plato sums up his views in an
image of ignorant humanity, trapped in the depths and not even
aware of its own limited perspective. 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
SOCRATES - GLAUCON
And now Glaucon, I said, let me show in a figure how far our
nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings

living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards
the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been
from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so
that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being
prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above
and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the
fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if
you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which
marionette players have in front of them, over which they show
the puppets.
I see.
And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all

sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of
wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the
wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.
You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange
prisoners.
Like ourselves, I replied; and they see only their own shadows,
or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the
opposite wall of the cave?
True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if
they were never allowed to move their heads?
And of the objects which are being carried in like manner, they
would only see the shadows?
Yes, he said.
And if they were able to converse with one another, would they
not suppose that they were naming what was actually before
them?
Very true.
And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came
from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one
of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came
from the passing shadow?
No question, he replied.
To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the
shadows of the images.
That is certain.

And now look again, and see what will naturally follow. The
prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first,
when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand
up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light,
he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he
will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he
had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to
him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now,
when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned
towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will
be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is
pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name
them, -will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the
shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which
are now shown to him?
Far truer.
And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not
have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take
and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he
will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are
now being shown to him?
True, he said.
And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a
steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into the
presence of the sun. Is he not likely to be pained and irritated?
When he approaches the light, his eyes will be dazzled, and he
will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called
realities.
Not all in a moment, he said.
He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper

world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the
reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the
objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon
and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky
and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun
by day.
Certainly.
Last he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of
him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place,
and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.
Certainly.
He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the
season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the
visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which
he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason
about him.
And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of
the den and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he
would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?
Certainly, he would.
And if they were in the habit of conferring honours among
themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing
shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which
followed after, and which were together; and who were
therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you
think that he would care for such honours and glories, or envy
the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer, “Better

to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything,
rather than think as they do and live after their manner?”
Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than
entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.
Imagine once more, I said, such a one coming suddenly out of
the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be
certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
To be sure, he said.
And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring
the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the
den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had
become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire
this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not
be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down
he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to
think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and
lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and
they would put him to death.
No question, he said.
This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon,
to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight,
the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend
me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the
soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief,
which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or
wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is
that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of
all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also
inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and
right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible

world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the
intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who
would act rationally, either in public or private life must have
his eye fixed.
I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.
Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to
this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs;
for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where
they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if
our allegory may be trusted.
Yes, very natural.
And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine
contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in
a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before
he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is
compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the
images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavouring
to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen
absolute justice?
Anything but surprising, he replied.
Anyone who has common sense will remember that the
bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two
causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into
the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of
the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any
one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready
to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out
of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed
to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled
by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his

condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he
have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into
the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh
which greets him who returns from above out of the light into
the den.
That, he said, is a very just distinction.
But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be
wrong when they say that they can put knowledge into the soul
which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.
They undoubtedly say this, he replied.
Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of
learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was
unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so
too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of
the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that
of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and
of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the
good.
Very true.
2

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