---
date: '2023-09-13'
description: plato's allegory of the cave from republic discussing ignorance, enlightenment, journey from shadows to knowledge, and the ladder of beauty.
id: Republic
modified: 2026-06-05 15:08:42 GMT-04:00
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  - philos1aa3
title: Allegory of the cave, Republic
created: '2023-09-13'
published: '2023-09-13'
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Allegory of the cave (_Republic_ VII, 514a–517a):

- The prisoners see shadows cast by objects carried behind them. They take these shadows for reality.
- A released prisoner first finds the fire painful and the familiar shadows more convincing. Turning toward the objects takes adjustment.
- Outside, the prisoner gradually learns to see reflections, objects and finally the sun. Returning to the cave requires another adjustment; the others mistake the returner’s difficulty seeing for evidence that the ascent caused harm.

### Republic pp. 124-125

State of Ignorance?

The cave represents education and its absence. The ascent represents the soul’s movement toward intelligible things. The sun stands for the Good, which makes knowledge possible and gives truth to its objects (VI, 508e–509b; VII, 517b–c).

Eyesight supplies the image for a capacity to learn that the soul already has. Education turns that capacity toward being and the Good (VII, 518b–d).

Those who reach this understanding want to remain there. Plato nevertheless requires the future rulers to return and govern, since the city educated them for its common benefit (VII, 517c–d, 519c–520e).

Fear of the unknown?

Journey to Enlightenment?

Enlightenment as a duty?

Why most of them don’t want to escape at the beginning?
Why only one of them to escape? <span>&rarr;</span> fear of the unknown?

The form?

See also: [[thoughts/university/twenty-three-twenty-four/philo-1aa3/tut/Symposium#Symposium pp. 105-106|Symposium]] Ladders’ of beauty

![[thoughts/university/twenty-three-twenty-four/philo-1aa3/tut/IMG_0308.webp]]

Sources: _Republic_ [VI](https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.7.vi.html) and [VII](https://classics.mit.edu/Plato/republic.8.vii.html).