A Cave Allegory 👁 👁 👁
Hey friends,
I want to share this insight with you...
In his famous passage from The Republic, Socrates describes a scenario in which men, trapped in a cave, can see only the shadows of objects projected on the wall.
They are forced to face forward while a fire burns behind them.
Objects are held up in front of the fire, projecting images the men identify.
For instance, the men in the cave may think they see a book, but what they see is only the book's shadow as it is held up behind them.
When a man escapes the cave to witness the true nature of things, he is at first pained by the brilliance of the sun and confused by the physical objects.
But when he eventually understands the true nature of the world, he pities the masses who know only shadows.
Of course, the men in Socrates' cave resist learning the truth and think their escaped friend is crazy when he tries to describe it.
In the allegory, the men trapped in the cave represent the world's ignorant masses.
They see only representations of objects, the sights and sounds that can be discerned by our physical senses.
The man who escapes the cave to witness the true nature of things attains true knowledge.
Now a question comes to my mind: Are we in or out of the "cave" to find the truth?
Picture source
Written by A.L.
It is a great allegory and the movie matrix was inspired from it. It is unfortunate but the vast majority of people ( all of people actually in given times) confuse their own limits of perception with the truth.
Yes, generations has spoken based on what they perceive as real. Everything out of their current reality was considered as godly or unnatural until they understood and accepted the new reality.
I strongly believe that there is an infinite number of caves, encapsulated
in a fractal like manner. There is always as much truth outside of your perception as inside and you are always inside a cave as well as outside of one.. Something like this... But I surely know what you mean by "ignorant masses". I pity them too... :P
I agree with you. People kept the blindness because of fear to the unknown. And that fear is what keep them ignorant.
Not only fear I think. It has a reason that our brain filters out most information we perceive. This provides orientation and enables us to focus on what is most important for us at the moment. Unfortunately this also undermines the more important things for the whole. Together with fear this makes progress so slow.
Indeed! Thanks for your comment!