Plato_Image of the Cave

8/8/2019 Plato_Image of the Cave

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/platoimage-of-the-cave 1/5

1

“The Image of the Cave”

Plato, Republic [ Πολιτεία]. C.D. Reeve trans. (Indianapolis: Hackett, 2004)

[Socrates] And now, I said, let me show through an image the nature of being enlightened or

unenlightened. Imagine human beings living under the earth in a cave-like dwelling. Stretching a

long way up toward the daylight is its entrance, which is open to the light. They have lived theresince childhood, bound in one place and unable move; seeing only what is in front of them,

prevented by their bindings from even turning their heads. Picture up behind them and at a

distance a blazing fire. Between the fire and the prisoners, you will see, if you look, there is a

raised walkway. There is a low wall built along the walkway, like the one over which puppeteers

show puppet plays.

[Glaucon] I see, he said.

[Socrates] See also, I said, people traveling along the walkway carrying all sorts of artifacts and

statues of persons, and figures of animals, and other things made of various materials; holding

them high up so they appear over the wall. Though the walkers cast no shadows, some of thepeople are talking, others silent.

[Glaucon] You have shown me a strange image, and these are strange prisoners you speak of.

[Socrates] Like us, I replied. Tell me, can you imagine these people have ever seen themselves

or each other; anything other than the shadows the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave

they face? And of the objects which are being carried along the walkway, would see only their

shadows?

[Glaucon] How could they see anything but the shadows, if they are bound and unable to movetheir heads?

[Socrates] And if they were able to talk with one another, would they not suppose that they were

naming things actually present before them?

[Glaucon] That is true, he said.

[Socrates] And suppose further that the cave had an echo which came from the other side, would

the bound prisoner not be sure to suppose when one of the passers-by spoke that the sounds they

heard came from the shadows they see?

[Glaucon] By Zeus, I say so, he replied.

[Socrates] To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the objects.

[Glaucon] By necessity, he said.



2

[Socrates] And now look again, and see what will naturally follow when someone frees a

prisoner from his bindings. At first, when he is liberated and told to stand up and turn his neck

round and walk and look toward the light of the fire, it will be difficult and painful. The glare

will distress him, and he will be unable to clearly see the objects whose shadows were all he see

in his bound state. Suppose he is told that what he saw before was an illusion; and that because

he has now been forced to move closer and have his eyes turned toward more real things, that he

now has a clearer vision. Imagine also that his instructor [ paidotribeō] is pointing to the objectsas they pass and asking him to name what they are. Will he not be perplexed and feel lost? Will

he not regard the shadows he formerly saw as more real than the unfamiliar objects which are

pointed out and shown to him?

[Glaucon] He would, he stated.

[Socrates] And if he is made to look straight at the fire’s light, will he not have a pain in his

eyes, making him turn away move back toward the place where he had the ability to see, and that

he believes to be more real than the objects which he is being shown, objects he finds strange?

[Glaucon] I say he would, he responded.

[Socrates] And suppose once more, that the instructor pushes him up a steep and rugged ascent,

and holds him fast until he’s drawn out into the presence of the sunlight. Is he not likely to resist

this event and be pained by what his strange experiences in this place? Because now that he has

been drawn out into the light to which his eyes are unaccustomed, do you suppose he will be able

to see anything at all of what we call the true being of things.

[Glaucon] Not immediately, he said.

[Socrates] He will need to grow accustomed to this place, the upper world, and learn to see

anew. First he will be able to see the shadows of things cast by the sun best; next, he will see thereflections of things in water; and then, eventually, see things directly. At night he will gaze up

at the light of the moon and the stars in the heavens. Would he not see the sky and the stars by

night better than the sun and its light by day?

[Glaucon] Of course, he said.

[Socrates] Eventually he will be able to see the sun, and not reflections of it in the water. He

will see it by itself in its own place, and not through another medium; and he will look upon the

sun as it is itself and through his vision come to see the idea of the good [ton agathon] in its

truth, would he not?

[Glaucon] He could do nothing else, he said.

[Socrates] He will then proceed to figure out that it is the sun that gives the seasons and the

years, and is the cause of all that is in the world. And he would he not understand that, in a

certain way, the sun was, ultimately, the source of all things which he and his fellow prisoners

looked upon?

[Glaucon] Necessarily, he said, that is what would happen.



3

[Socrates] And when he remembered his old dwelling, and the wisdom he and his fellow

prisoners believed they possessed, do you not suppose that he would count himself fortunate and

pity them?

[Glaucon] Certainly, he would.

[Socrates] Imagine that the prisoners are in the habit of conferring honors among themselves.Revering those who are quickest to see the passing shadows and to say the names ascribed to

them by habit and custom; able to recall the names of the ones that passed before, and which

passed later, and which ones passed together in groups; and who, therefore, was able to make

guesses about the future of what they would see. Do you think the man now above in the light

would care for such honors and glories, or emulate those who are so honored? Would he not say,

following Homer:

Better to be the poor servant of a poor master,

and endure anything, than to think as they do and live as they do?

[Glaucon] Yes, he said, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false

notions and live in this miserable manner.

[Socrates] Imagine once more, I said, the one now above coming suddenly out of the sun and

returned to his previous situation; would he not have difficulty seeing in this place that is now,

by comparison, very dark?

[Glaucon] To be sure, he said.

[Socrates] And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in evaluating the shadows with

the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his ability to see was still impaired,and before his eyes had adjusted, would he not be ridiculed for what he says he sees? The others

would say that up he went and down he came unable to see and understand; and that it was best

never to consider ascending. And if anyone else tried to compel them and lead them up to the

light, wouldn’t they agree that the offender should be subdued and put to death?

[Glaucon] No question, he said.

[Socrates] This image, friend Glaucon, should be applied to all that we have spoken of before.

The situation of the cave shows us how most men in our world see. Our sun is akin to the light of

the fire, and you will not misunderstand me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent

of the soul to the place of true divine thought beyond the limits of what is seen on earth. But,whether true or false, my image of things says that in matters of acquiring knowledge the idea of

the true good is seen last. It is seen only with through sustained effort; and, when seen, it is

understood to be the cause of all things beautiful and right, giving birth to the light of our world

and all it contains. It is the source of our potential for knowledge of it. That means the good has a

place in our soul, planted like a seed by the divine itself idea itself. The man who desires to live

wisely, then, either in private or public affairs, must focus his eyes so as to move what is placed

in his soul so it ascends upward and comes see its source, the idea of the good.



4

[Glaucon] I agree, he said, if it is in my power to see what you are saying.

[…]

[Socrates] But then, if I am right, those who say that education is achieved through teachings

that brings new things to dwell in the soul that were not there before, like sight into blind eyes,

cannot be correct.

[Glaucon] They do say this, he replied.

[Socrates] Whereas, this account of the image, which I showed to you with words in this place

we sit together, let’s us see that the genuine power and capacity of learning exists in the soul

already; and that just as the eyes were unable to turn completely from darkness to light without

the whole body turning and moving within the cave dwelling, so too must the movement of the

whole soul be turned from the world of things brought into being for us to see to its source. It

would be like the scene-shifting devices of the theater, whose turns of scenery boards turn us

toward completely new sights, even though we remain seated. We must learn through effort and

by degrees to turn in places and to endure the intensity of this shining idea, of the brightest andbest cause of all things, so as to see the good as it is in itself.

[Glaucon] As you say, he declared.

[Socrates] And must there not be some art which will enable this learning; not by implanting

the faculty of sight; for that exists already but has been turned in the wrong direction and looks in

the wrong places [or wrongly in places1], and thus is looking away from the truth? There is a

place where this art can be seen, yes.

[Glaucon] Yes, he said, there may be such art. It can be found here, I believe, but it is difficult

to see its place in the world.

[…]

[Socrates] Yes, my friend, I said; and there lies the point. We must make the world a better a

place to dwell for our future rulers, a place better than that in which present rulers live, and then

we will have a noble republic. For only in a city which offers this [better world], with places to

live without fear that one’s learning— and the words of wisdom they will say, enabled because

they can see beyond worldly things which all common people see as true — with not result in

ridicule or death, will good men, rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, want to

be leaders. Whereas if the world remains as it is, our leaders will be those whose attachment to

the world’s shadowy images place within in them a deep hunger their own advantage and power….

[Glaucon] Most true, he replied.

1There is an irresolvable ambiguity in the original Greek that justifies either translation. [DS]



5

[Socrates] And the only life which looks down upon the life of private advantage and power is

that of true philosophy. Do you know of any other?

[Glaucon] Indeed, I do not, he said.

Documents

Plato_Image of the Cave