Allegory of
the Cave
By Plato
Written 360 B.C.E.
Translated by Benjamin Jowett
The Allegory
of the Cave can be found in Book VII of Plato's book, The Republic, a
long dialogue about the nature of justice.
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[Socrates] AND
NOW, I SAID, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or
unenlightened:
[Scene 1[1]: The
Initial Condition of Bondage]
BEHOLD! HUMAN BEINGS living in an underground den, which has a mouth open
toward 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.
[Glaucon] I
see.
[Socrates] 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.
[Glaucon] YOU
HAVE SHOWN ME a strange image, and they are strange
prisoners.
[Socrates] 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?
[Glaucon] TRUE,
HE SAID; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed
to move their heads?
[Socrates] AND
OF THE OBJECTS which are being carried in like manner they would only see the
shadows?
[Glaucon] YES,
he said.
[Socrates] AND
IF THEY WERE ABLE to converse with one another, would they not suppose that
they were naming what was actually before them?
[Glaucon] VERY true.
[Socrates] 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?
[Glaucon] NO
question, he replied.
[Socrates] TO
THEM, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the
images.
[Glaucon] THAT
is certain.
[Scene 2—A Prisoner
Escapes]
[Socrates] AND
NOW LOOK AGAIN, and see what will naturally follow if 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 toward
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 someone 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 toward 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?
[Glaucon] FAR truer.
[Socrates] 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 refuge 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?
[Glaucon] TRUE,
he said.
[Socrates] AND
SUPPOSE ONCE MORE, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent,
and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself, 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.
[Glaucon] NOT
ALL in a moment, he said.
[Socrates] 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?
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] LAST
OF ALL 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.
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] 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?
[Glaucon] CLEARLY,
he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.
[Socrates] 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?
[Glaucon] CERTAINLY,
he would.
[Socrates] AND
IF THEY WERE IN THE HABIT of conferring honors 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 honors 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?
[Glaucon] YES,
HE SAID, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these
false notions and live in this miserable manner.
[Scene 3: The Escaped Prisoner Returns]
[Socrates]
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?
[Glaucon] TO
BE SURE, he said.
[Socrates] 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 anyone
tried to loose another and lead him up to the light,
let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
[Glaucon] NO
QUESTION, he said.
[Socrates Interprets the Parable]
[Socrates] 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 upward 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.
[Glaucon] I
AGREE, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.
[Socrates] 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.
[Glaucon] YES,
very natural.
[Socrates] AND
IS THERE ANYTHING SURPRISING in one who passes from divine contemplation's 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 endeavoring to meet the
conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?
[Glaucon] ANYTHING
but surprising, he replied.
[Socrates] ANYONE
WHO HAS COMMON SENSE will remember that the bewilderment's 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 anyone 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 life, 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.
[Glaucon] THAT, he said, is a very just distinction.