Socrates: Imagine people are kept in an underground cave from childhood, their legs and necks in chains so that they can see only in front of them. There is a fire behind them casting shadows on the back wall of the cave. Between the prisoners and the fire there is a road along which “puppet-masters” carry objects that cast shadows on the back wall of the cave. Some of the puppet-masters speak, others are silent.
Glaucon: That’s a strange image and strange prisoners you speak of.
Socrates: They’re like us.
Plato, “Allegory of the Cave,” Republic
In his “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato’s character, Socrates, paints a striking picture of people kept in chains from birth deep in a cave chained by the neck and the legs so that they can only see the back wall of the cave. As a consequence, they only “know” the shadows cast by a fire behind them on the back wall of the cave. There are other people, the “puppet masters”, who are not chained and manipulate these prisoners. Some puppet-masters carry objects, such as a sword, between the fire and the prisoners and say the word “sword” when its shadow flickers on the back wall of the cave. Since the prisoners never see a real sword, they come to associate the word “sword” with the flickering shadow on the back wall of the cave. The same is true for all objects. Thus, they do not even know what their own words mean. The word “sword” actually means a metallic weapon, but they think it means a certain flickering shadow on the back wall of the cave. Having been in this condition since birth, they do not even know they are in a cave or even have a concept of a cave. They do not, therefore, even know that they are prisoners. Their “reality” is an insubstantial parade of flickering shadows dancing before their eyes. The “puppet masters” have kept them in a state of complete illusion about both themselves and the world.
When Glaucon says these are strange prisoners Socrates says, “They’re like us.” We are the prisoners in the cave. The fact that Glaucon finds the image strange shows that he does not know himself. He may even think himself free, but he is a prisoner in a cave being manipulated by puppet masters. He does not even have a concept of the kind of prisoner that he is. Plato’s allegory is not a strange fancy. It is meant to describe the human condition. We have no idea what reality is. We don’t even know the meanings of our own words.
