Socrates: Imagine people are kept in an underground cave from childhood, their legs and necks in chains so that they can see only in front of them. There is a fire behind them casting shadows on the back wall of the cave. Between the prisoners and the fire there is a road along which “puppet-masters” carry objects that cast shadows on the back wall of the cave. Some of the puppet-masters speak, others are silent.

Glaucon: That’s a strange image and strange prisoners you speak of.

Socrates: They’re like us. – Plato, “Allegory of the Cave,” Republic

Richard McDonough –  In his “Allegory of the Cave,” Plato’s character, Socrates, paints a striking picture of people kept in chains from birth deep in a cave chained by the neck and the legs so that they can only see the back wall of the cave.  As a consequence, they only “know” the shadows cast by a fire behind them on the back wall of the cave. Continue reading →