Allegory of the Cave Plato

Plato's Cave Allegory

Plato's writing in the cave allegory deals extensively with moral values, materialism, ethical behavior and spirituality. The plot and basic concepts (discussed below) lend an incredible helping hand to understanding our place in this world given these frameworks.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Republic, book 7) recounts slaves chained from their very birth to their work areas deep in a cave. They are chained in a manner that precludes them from gazing left or right but only at that which is on the wall of the cave immediately in front of them. On this wall in front of them are the visible shadows of the people traipsing behind them, carrying food, water, or raw materials of all kinds. Beyond these individuals burns a constant fire that gives both heat and light to the desperate and chained inhabitants. These chained slaves create a game to ameliorate their boredom. Among other things, they attempt to divine what the following shadow indicates. They praise those who guess correctly the most often, but the praise has no extrinsic value, or calculable value. The games persist, for these slaves have nothing of true worth to replace them with. The trivial must be praised. Deep inside the cave, their dwelling, there is simply no day or night. There is just the wall with the prancing shadows in the fire-illuminated cave.

However, it so happens that one of the task-givers decides, for some inexplicable reason, to set free one of the slaves. That fortunate prisoner leaps from his chains and, protecting his eyes from the bright fire, heads toward the cave entrance. He stops there, because the sunlight outside is far too bright for eyes accustomed to a dim light. The ex-slave pauses -- for what, he does not himself know. Eventually, nightfall comes, and he is able to make his way out into the moonlit night. Even that light waxes too bright, so he makes his way along, looking only at the ground. The ex-slave arrives a pool of water and, in its reflection, he sees a tree for the very first time. He continues to gaze into this pool, where he sees bushes, more trees, and clouds. The world is coming alive for him, if only in reflection.

As his eyes become used to the light and as the sun rises again, casting its glow on all he can see, amazing miracles occur. Brightly colored birds come into view. Flowers, in their myriad vivid colors, raise their petals in joyous salute. The ex-slave is suddenly in a world of wonder and magnificence. If only all of his fellow slaves were free to witness it. Only then does he realize the extent of what he has lost in the cave. Only then does he realize the triviality of the games they were playing and the shadows.

He quickly decides that he must return to the cave to tell his fellow slaves about the wonders outside. If the slaves cannot experience these sights, at least they will know of them. The ex-slave believes that that little knowledge for them will be better than a life knowing only shadows. When this ex-slave, now filled to the brim with the marvelous sights of creation, returns and spreads the news, no one will even believe him -- they all think he is certifiably crazy. In a world of only shadows, light and brightness are beyond belief.

Plato explains that we live in the shadows of reality. Reality is latent and not visible and must be found by a balance of intellect and loving intuition. For Plato, challenge is to know ourselves and to know what we encounter in life. If we really understand this, then awe, gratitude, and reverence become part of our daily lives. We are, in every sense, brothers and sisters who should jointly be living that reality. It is a reality fostered by a consciousness expanded by devotion, humility, gratitude, and love. It is also a consciousness fostered by a keen intellectualism.

The story raises many questions. First, in what ways would depending on the material world for one's highest moral values affect human behavior? Plato believes that depending on the world for moral values is incorrect; although the slaves only had their shadows as their glimpse into the world, suddenly changing perspectives based on an outside "reality" only ends in failure in the cave allegory. Plato asks us all to divine our moral beliefs from our own reality, not someone else's.

Plato also asks us to consider the connection between ethics and materialism. In this case, ethics are critical despite material understandings. The ex-slave could have easily gone on his way once he realized what he had been missing, and what he had the benefit of enjoying now, but he stays true to his ethics and returns to the cave to inform his fellow slaves of what they are missing.

Even though our greatest pleasures are in the senses, we must follow our gut, according to the cave allegory, and do what is right for our fellow people. The ex-slave does this: He returns to the cave, to his roots, abandoning the direction given only by his material senses and giving into the correct path, according to Plato, of acting morally despite materialism.

People have few alternatives to acting ethically: Materialism has no proper place in the decision-making process for man, according to Plato. However, this view is not at all championed in Lao Tzu and Machiavelli.

Tao-te Ching argues that tao is the world and the absolute principle of its cosmic order. It also claims that everything is in flux because of the life force, or chi. TTC propagates a view that a wise person or a ruler should take tao into account in every single action. A wise man or woman lives in harmony by not aiming to achieve too much, stretching oneself beyond one's proper limits, but rather allowing oneself to play the role that comes naturally, almost with a degree of passivity. He should "know the masculine, keep to the feminine; know the white, keep to the black; know the glorious, keep to the lowly" and recognize that "a great tailor does little cutting."