Allegory of the cave

Today, I'm showing the most famous part in the Republic. It is about allegory of the cave. Let me tell you the story Socrates says in the book about the effect of education and that of the lack of it.

Imagine human beings living in an underground, their cavelike house. They have been living there since childhood and have not moved from the same point. What they could see was the wall in front of them. Above and behind them, fire is burning. And between prisoners and the fire, there is a road. Along this road, people are carrying artifacts such as statues of people and other animals made of stone or wood. Some people are talking carrying statues. The other is silent.

The problem for the prisoners is that they could see only the shadows of people and the statues they are carrying casted on the wall. For that reason, they would take it for true reality.

One day, a man was allowed to see the fire itself and the statues itself. At first, he would not be able to see them because it was too bright for him. So, he would believe the shadow he used to see had been easy to see and ,thus, more truly real. This suggests he would be unable to see a single one of the things said to be truly real. Moreover, he would need time to get adjusted to see the truly real things above the cave.

On the contrary, a man he has got adjusted to see the fire with his eyes and known what the truly real things are would not want to go back to the cave and live with the prisoners who still did not believe the shadows were the real things. And he also would not be able to see the thing in the cave because it was too dark to see.