Plato's Cave Myth (meaning and history of this allegory)

Plato's Cave Myth It is one of the great allegories of the idealistic philosophy that has so marked the way of thinking of Western cultures.

Understanding it means knowing the styles of thought that for centuries have been the dominant in Europe and America, as well as the foundations of the Plato's theories. Let's see what it consists of.

Plato and his myth of the cave

This myth is an allegory of the theory of ideas proposed by Plato, and appears in the writings that are part of the book The Republic. It is basically the description of a fictitious situation that helped to understand the way in which Plato conceived the relationship between the physical and the world of ideas, and how we move through them.

Plato begins by talking about some men who remain chained to the depths of a cave since their birth, without never having been able to get out of it and, in fact, without the ability to look back to understand the origin of those chains.

Thus, they always remain looking at one of the walls of the cave, with the chains clinging to them from behind. Behind them, at a certain distance and placed something above their heads, there is a bonfire that illuminates the area a little, and between it and the chained ones there is a wall, which Plato equates to the tricks that cheats and tricksters carry out so that their tricks are not noticed.

Between the wall and the fire there are other men who carry with them objects that protrude above the wall, so that his shadow is projected on the wall that the chained men are contemplating. In this way, they see the silhouette of trees, animals, mountains in the distance, people who come and go, etc.

Lights and shadows: the idea of ​​living in a fictionalized reality

Plato maintains that, as bizarre as the scene may be, those chained men he describes look like us, human beings, since neither they nor we see more than those fallacious shadows, which simulate a deceptive and superficial reality. This fiction projected by the light of the bonfire distracts them from reality: the cave in which they remain chained.

However, if one of the men broke free from the chains and could look back, he would be confused and annoyed by reality: the light of the fire would cause him to look away, and the blurred figures that he could see would seem less real to him than the shadows that he has seen all his life. Similarly, if someone were to force this person to walk in the direction of the bonfire and past her until she left the cavern, the sunlight would bother her even more, and she would want to return to the area dark.

In order to capture reality in all its details, he would have to get used to it, dedicate time and effort to see things as they are without giving in to confusion and annoyance. However, if he ever returned to the cavern and met the chained men again, he would remain blind from the lack of sunlight. Likewise, anything he could say about the real world would be met with mockery and contempt.

The myth of the cave today

As we have seen, the myth of the cave brings together a series of very common ideas for idealistic philosophy: the existence of a truth that exists independently of the opinions of the human beings, the presence of constant deceptions that make us stay away from that truth, and the qualitative change that accessing that truth implies: once it is known, there is no way behind.

These ingredients can also be applied day to daySpecifically, in the way in which the media and hegemonic opinions shape our points of view and our way of thinking without our realizing it. Let's see how the phases of Plato's cave myth can correspond to our current lives:

1. The deceptions and the lies

The deceptions, which may arise from a willingness to keep others with little information or the lack of scientific and philosophical progress, it would embody the phenomenon of shadows that parade along the wall of the cave. In Plato's perspective, this deception is not exactly the fruit of someone's intention, but rather the The consequence of material reality being only a reflection of true reality: that of the world of ideas.

One of the aspects that explain why the lie has such an impact on the life of the human being is that, for this Greek philosopher, is composed of what seems evident from a superficial point of view. If we have no reason to question something, we don't, and its falsehood prevails.

2. The Liberation

The act of freeing oneself from the chains would be the acts of rebellion that we usually call revolutions., or paradigm shifts. Of course, it is not easy to rebel, since the rest of the social dynamic goes in the opposite direction.

In this case it would not be a social revolution, but an individual and personal one. On the other hand, liberation involves seeing many of the most internalized beliefs falter, which produces uncertainty and anxiety. To make this state disappear, it is necessary to continue advancing in the sense of discovering new knowledge. It is not possible to stay without doing anything, according to Plato.

3. Ascension

Ascension to truth would be a costly and uncomfortable process that involves letting go of beliefs deeply ingrained in us. Therefore, it is a great psychological change that is reflected in the renunciation of old certainties and the openness to truths, which for Plato are the foundation of what really exists (both in us and in our around).

Plato took into account that people's past conditions the way in which they experience the present, and that is why assumed that a radical change in the way of understanding things had to necessarily lead to discomfort and discomfort. In fact, that is one of the ideas that are clear in his way of illustrating that moment through the image of someone who He tries to get out of a cave instead of sitting and that, when he reaches the outside, he receives the blinding light of the reality.

4. Return

The return would be the last phase of the myth, which would consist of the dissemination of new ideas, which by shocking can generate confusion, contempt or hatred for questioning basic dogmas that structure society.

However, since for Plato the idea of ​​truth was associated with the concept of good and good, the person who has had access to the authentic reality has a moral obligation to make other people detach from ignorance, and therefore has to spread its knowledge.

Like his teacher, Socrates, Plato believed that social conventions about what is appropriate behavior are subject to the virtue that comes from reaching the true knowledge. Therefore, although the ideas of those who return to the cave are shocking and generate attacks by others, the mandate to share the truth forces you to confront these old lies.

This last idea makes Plato's cave myth not exactly a story of individual liberation. It is a conception of access to knowledge that part of an individualistic perspective, yes: it is the individual who, by his own means, accesses what is true through a personal struggle against illusions and deceptions, something frequent in idealistic approaches as they are based on the premises of solipsism. However, once the individual has reached that phase, he must bring the knowledge to the rest.

Of course, the idea of ​​sharing the truth with others was not exactly an act of democratization, as we could understand it today; it was simply a moral mandate that emanated from Plato's theory of ideas, and it did not have to translate into an improvement in the material living conditions of society.

Bibliographic references:

• Bury, R. G. (1910). The Ethics of Plato. The International Journal of Ethics XX (3): 271-281.
• Dillon, J. (2003). The Heirs of Plato: A Study of the Old Academy. Oxford University Press.
• Koller, J. (2013). Chad Meister and Paul Copan (ed.). Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion. Routledge.
• Reale, G. (1997). Toward a New Interpretation of Plato. Washington, DC: CUA Press.
• Rowe, C. (2006). Interpreting Plato. In Benson, Hugh H. (ed.). A Companion to Plato. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 13–24.
• Whitehead, A. N. (1929). Process and reality.