1. There is an underground cave in which prisoners are chained, since birth, and faced one direction, with no leeway to swivel their heads. All that they can see is the cave wall in front of them. Behind them there is a low wall where puppeteers come and do “shows” with various objects. The prisoners cannot see the actual object that is being shown, however, they can see the shadow of it because of the fire that is also behind them. They hear the echoes of the puppeteers voices behind them bouncing off the cave walls and mistake them for the voices of the shadows in front of them. This leads to a competition on who can best guess the next object that will be shown and explain what it is. They are rewarded for getting this right. One day, a prisoner is let loose to the outside world and has a hard time comprehending what, exactly, is real. He starts with the shadows of objects then reflections on the water. Next, he can see objects for what they really are, including the stars and the sky. He will, then, be able to see the sun
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Socrates uses the different scenes of the cave to incorporate the allegory of the sun and the divided line. The cave itself, where the prisoners are tied up only to see shadows, is the visible part of the line; more specifically, the belief and opinion parts of life. This is where men learn from images and shadows. They see only partial likeness of an object, never learning full truth. The prisoners rely strictly on their senses to make sense of what they are seeing. Outside the cave, however, is the top of the divided line. This is where men learn from actual objects. Above the darkness of the cave, is where intelligence and mathematical reasoning are used and understood; knowledge is more than just an assumption or a sense, here, it is an inherent truth. The sun comes in to play here, as well. The light from the sun (or the “good”) is what Socrates compares to knowledge. The closer we come to it, the more clear life’s mysteries
Socrates uses the different scenes of the cave to incorporate the allegory of the sun and the divided line. The cave itself, where the prisoners are tied up only to see shadows, is the visible part of the line; more specifically, the belief and opinion parts of life. This is where men learn from images and shadows. They see only partial likeness of an object, never learning full truth. The prisoners rely strictly on their senses to make sense of what they are seeing. Outside the cave, however, is the top of the divided line. This is where men learn from actual objects. Above the darkness of the cave, is where intelligence and mathematical reasoning are used and understood; knowledge is more than just an assumption or a sense, here, it is an inherent truth. The sun comes in to play here, as well. The light from the sun (or the “good”) is what Socrates compares to knowledge. The closer we come to it, the more clear life’s mysteries