The Allegory of the Cave
"The unexamined life is not worth living." (Apology 38a)
The Allegory of the cave is a metaphorical explanation of the education of the soul toward knowledge. Plato explains us the existence of two worlds: the sensible world of appearances (known through the senses) and the supersensible world of ideas (only reachable through reason). There are also two levels of awareness: opinion and knowledge. Statements about the physical or visible world, including comments and propositions of science are just opinion. Some opinions are well founded, but none of them counts as genuine knowledge. The reason, used correctly, is the only way to discover and to understand the true reality.
Plato describes a group of prisoners who have lived their entire live chained up facing the inside of an underground cave. They only can look to a wall of the cave and cannot escape. A burning fire behind them projects the shadows of the people and things outside the cave on the wall that the prisoners can see. The prisoners are not able to perceive the truth and think the shadows are real, unaware that they are blind from true reality.
The cave is the place of the sensible world (things perceived with our five senses) and the situation in which people find themselves as prisoners in the cave represents the state in which human beings remain outside knowledge. They are shackled by their ignorance, which only allows them to see the shadows as the one and only reality misunderstanding its origin. The statues or objects are the change of men's mental state to reality, which involves pain and conversion of the soul and the fire refers to the reason, besides enables the projection of shadows of objects on the wall. These shadows are appearances, that is, what we grasp through the senses and think is real. Natural things, the world outside the cave, and the prisoners who cannot see, are the world of ideas.
Only those who get rid of the chains that keep them confined in a world of appearances- the interior of the cave- and ascend gradually to the supersensible world, will be able to understand the nature of the reality.
This is a great summary of the cave allegory. It would be nice to hear as well what you think of Plato's claim that life in the cave, the unexamined life, is not worth living.
ReplyDeleteMy interpretation of "The unexamined life is not worth living" is that we should access to the center of our being to analyze our own existence, to feel the life lived, and to reflect on who we were then and who we are now. We should not let life pass by because it is a continuous source of wisdom and knowledge, a learning journey. Even in suffering, reflexive acceptance of adverse situations can help us to measure everything in perspective. The realities are what they are and we should learn to assume them, otherwise we will feel an unpleasant condition that increases the distress of life.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard for me to express my thoughts in English, Professor. I hope you can understand what I want to say.
ReplyDeleteYes, I was intrigued by your post, that's why I wanted to push you to express a bit more about your interpretation.
ReplyDeleteYour English is very clear, by the way.