Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is used to show how one would rise from simple illusion to being philosophically illuminated. Plato’s allegory also gives some examples of the difficulties that the are incurred. I fully agree with Plato’s allegory and will be explaining why I feel this way towards his allegory. I will also examine three symbols from the allegory after shortly explaining the allegory of the cave itself. I will also use an experience from my own life to help show how the allegory of the cave can be directly represented in every day life and how the symbols I have examined, while not being exact, are still present.
In the cave there are prisoners. These prisoners cannot move because they are restrained by chains. The only thing that they can see is a wall that illuminated by a great light. This light is actually a fire behind them, which has a low sitting wall in between itself and the prisoners. As men walk below the wall holding up objects made out of every type of materials and in all sorts of shapes, the shadows of these shapes are placed on the wall in front of the prisoners. The low wall serves as a sort of “stage” or “blind” that keeps the men hidden and allows only the shadows to be illuminated onto the wall for the prisoners. The prisoners have known nothing other than the cave and its wall of shadows. While these prisoners have been watching the wall of shadows they have been able to hear the low talking of the men passing by the low wall. Knowing no better they have associated the noises to the shadows. To the prisoners the truth is only the wall and its shadows. At one point a teacher releases one of the prisoners and lets him up to show him his surroundings of the cave. When the prisoner looks around at the actual objects that create the shadows he is rather confused, and feels that the shadows are the truer of the objects because those are the things he has always known. The teacher then lead the prisoner up to the surface and out of the cave. When the teacher and the prisoner reach the world the prisoner is held fast until the pain of the light and confusion are overcome by his understanding of these visions. The prisoner would then first see the shadows, but then slowly he would see all things in their reality. As he starts to see the objects of physical reality he would soon see his reflection in water, the stars and moon in the sky and the sun hanging in their places. This will lead the man who was once a prisoner to contemplate many things, but he will eventually contemplate himself.
No sooner would the prisoner start to think about himself then he would begin to think about his fellow prisoner still in the cave, and he would feel pity for them. For his fellow prisoners are still believing what they see, and what he once thought as well, as being reality. Meanwhile those in the cave have a reward system that will give a crown to the prisoner who recognizes and remembers the shadows the best. The man who was once a prisoner would no longer envy for this crown, since he now knows the simplicity and sad truth to the physical cave. The former prisoner would rather suffer than live a life under the false truths of the cave. The former prisoner ventures down to his fellow prisoners to help enlighten them as to the nature of things as they truly are. When the former prisoner would speak of these things to the prisoners they would think him mad and laugh outright at him. The prisoners would ridicule the former prisoner, and if he would be caught trying to release one of the prisoners, they would put him to death for trying to release one of them.
In Plato’s allegory of the cave a very large component to the reality of the cave are the chains. In the allegory of the cave these chains keep the prisoners from escaping and finding the truth that is the outside world. The chains that restrain the prisoners, while real to the prisoners in the cave, are no more real than the shadows are. The importance of chains is that they restrain the prisoners, whether the chains are actual metal or simply mental chains does not matter for both restrain their prisoner from the truth.
Another reality of the cave is the shadows themselves. The prisoners know only the shadows and to the prisoners these shadows are the truth. The prisoners know nothing outside of the shadows and the noises to which their lives have been secluded to. Just as the truth of the shadows is that they are not physical but only images, the physical outside world of objects is also bound to the senses. After a while the freed prisoner starts to contemplate himself, this contemplation is the true freedom that Plato’s allegory of the cave speaks of. The enlightenment of thinking philosophically is the base issue for the allegory of the cave. The shadows that are the prisoners only truth, are actually the darkness that encompasses those not enlightened to thinking philosophically. The prisoners believe the shadows to be the only truth, the shadows therefore represent the darkness that keeps the prisoners from thinking philosophically about anything since the truth as they know it is directly in front of them.
The third symbolic object I believe to be largely important is the crown that is given to the prisoner with the best memory or recognition of the shadows. This crown is a privilege to those in the cave, yet to the freed prisoner the crown has no significance or importance. This crown is given to the prisoners by the same men that carry the objects back and forth to create the shadows. This crown reinforces the prisoners way of life to not think beyond the level that will get them the prize of the crown. I see the crown as a representation of man’s physical possessions. Sometimes these possessions make people think that as long as they think or do enough to obtain that physical possession then why do more. The crown in Plato’s cave while being a physical envied prize, it is truly an object that really only limits the prisoners mental progression.
In a similar development from imprisonment to freedom I came to understand that my religious upbringing was in its own way keeping me prisoner. I was brought up going to church every Sunday and church choir practice 3 times a week, and of course in a Christian household, which in and of itself is not a bad thing. The problem lies in the fact that my church and parents brought me up in the schooling that anything outside of my families religion was incorrect, non Christian and therefore wrong. This was the end of the discussion, until I moved out of my parents house when I was 18, over 8 years ago. When I moved out of my parents, I moved into a college lifestyle, this lifestyle was very loosely structured when compared to my parents world. This change in lifestyle also brought the option of church selection and even religious choice. This choice coupled with the overall way I am in thinking about things, led me to think about religions, life, and the importance of these things in ones life. After awhile I realized that I was trapped by my religious upbringing and that there is no correct religion. While I realize that there are religions for people I also had the ability and the freedom to step back and try to figure out the bigger picture of religion. I was aware of this bigger picture before my college lifestyle started but I was unaware of the truth that religious institutions are not what faith is about. This was my personal journey from the cave of my religious upbringing to the outside world of thinking about religions in ways other than the prescribed institutional teachings.
In my personal journey I too had chains but they were not physical. They were mental and habitual, since I was raised within the church more than others, from Sunday services to the strict attendance to three times a week church choir practices, I felt that these things were needed for the religious part of my being. I believed that what I was being taught about morality and the non physical part of my being nearly depended on my religious following of these institutional teachings. The possible disappointment of my parents and church peers served as my mental chains that kept me from knowing anything outside of what was placed in front of me such as the shadows.
The shadows in Plato’s cave closely resemble the teachings and upbringing that I was subjected too while following such a close regimen of religious following. These shadows or teachings where blinding me from thinking outside of what was placed in front of me. I was brought up believing that I should never question these teachings and these teachings reinforced these beliefs. It was not until I was away from this lifestyle that I started to put things into question and looking beyond the teachings and trying to find the bigger picture of life. While these teachings were not lies, they were narrow minded and limiting in their view.
The church I was involved with was a very prosperous one, it was actually the head church for episcopalian churches in Indiana. While I was following the strict regimen of events for the church I was awarded with multiple trips to other countries and possibilities beyond the normal American youth. I know look back at this and see that these things were nothing more than the crown in the cave as Plato’s allegory describes. Why think beyond a certain point if I can think to that certain point and obtain these prizes. Only once again as soon as I placed these things into a greater picture I became aware of their lack of importance in a bigger picture. These objects were my crown, a crown given by the church, although not a physical crown they served the same purpose.
Through this time in my life of transition from religious bindings to a freed man without religious bindings, but with religious understanding, I have learned that while religion is important it also must be accepted with a “grain of salt” because historically religion has been used for power and in its use for power it was inevitably modified either greatly or only slightly for those purposes. This modification is proven through history and can also be proven across all religions whether it is Catholicism or Buddhism. It is better to approach religion as a whole world over through enlightened contemplation rather than through the narrow teachings of one institution. Religion is for the person and within a person not a building that has been built by man for man.
Plato’s allegory of the cave is an important teaching tool of the imprisonment of the philosophical mind. The allegory of the cave has three symbols that I believe to be hugely important, while there are many, these three of the chains,shadows, and the crown are the core of the allegory of the cave. The chain that restrains the prisoner, the shadows that keep the prisoners mind in the darkness, and the crown that means nothing except to the prisoners who know nothing outside of the cave. While my own journey is different from the cave in certain ways it also parallels the allegory of the cave in its religious restraint and thinking outside of institutional teachings. This journey allowed me to alter my contemplation about the bigger picture of religion for my own spiritual health.
