Plato. Dialogue about the cave

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

- You can compare our human nature in relation to enlightenment and ignorance to this state … Imagine that people are, as it were, in an underground dwelling like a cave, where a wide opening stretches along its entire length. From an early age they have fetters on their legs and around their necks, so that people cannot move from their place, and they see only what is right in front of their eyes, for they cannot turn their heads because of these fetters. People are turned with their backs to the light emanating from the fire, which burns far above, and between the fire and the prisoners there is an upper road, fenced off, imagine, by a low wall like the screen behind which magicians place their assistants when they show dolls over the Screen.

Plato. Dialogue about the cave

Imagine, then, that other people are carrying various utensils behind this wall, holding them so that they are visible over the wall; They carry both statues and all sorts of images of living creatures made of stone and wood. At the same time, as usual, some of the carriers talk, others are silent. An image like us. First of all, do you think that. being in this position, people see anything, their own or someone else's, except for the shadows cast by fire on the wall of the cave located in front of them?

- How can they see something different, since all their lives they have to keep their heads motionless?

And what about the objects that they carry there, behind the wall? Isn't it the same with them?

“If the prisoners were able to converse with each other, do you think, would they not think that they give names to exactly what they see?

- Definitely so.

- Further. If in their dungeon everything echoed that no one who passed by, you think, would they attribute these sounds to something other than a passing shadow? Such prisoners would completely and completely accept for the truth the shadows of objects carried by.

- It's completely inevitable.

- Observe their liberation from the shackles of unreason and healing from it, in other words, how would all this happen to them if something like this happened to them in a natural way … neck, walk, look up towards the light, it will be painful for him to do all this; he will not be able to look with a bright radiance at those things, the shadow of which he had seen before. And what do you think he will say when they begin to tell him that before he saw trifles, but now, having approached being and turning to a more authentic one, he could find the correct view? Moreover, if they begin to point to this or that thing passing in front of him and make him answer the question, what is it? Do you think that this will make him extremely difficult, and he will think that there is much more truth in what he saw before than in what is shown to him now?

“Of course he will think so.

- And if you make him look directly at the light itself, will not his eyes hurt and he will not hastily turn away to what he can see, believing that this is really more reliable than the things that are shown to him?

- Yes it is.

- If someone begins to forcibly drag him up the steepness, into the Jura, and does not release him until he takes him out into the sunlight, will he not suffer and be outraged by such violence? And when he came out into the light, his eyes would be so amazed by the radiance that he would not be able to make out a single object of those, the authenticity of which he is now being told.

- Yes, he couldn’t have done that right away.

- It takes a habit, since he has to see everything that is up there. It is necessary to start with the easiest: first, look at the shadows, then at the reflections of people and various objects in the water, and only then at the things themselves; at the same time, what is in the sky, and the sky itself, would be easier for him to see not during the day, but at night, that is, to look at the starlight and the moon, and not at the sun and its light.

- Undoubtedly.

- And finally, I think, this person would be able to look at the Sun itself, which is in his own area, and see its properties, not limited to observing its deceptive reflection in water or in other alien environments.

- Of course, it will become available to him.

- And then he will conclude that both the seasons and the course of the years depend on the Sun, and that it knows everything in visible space, and it is somehow the reason for everything that this man and other prisoners saw earlier in cave.

- It is clear that he will come to this conclusion after those observations.

- So how? Remembering his former home, the wisdom there and his companions in the conclusion, will he not consider it bliss to change his position and will not he pity his friends?

- And even very much.

- And if they gave some honor and praise to each other there, rewarding the one who was distinguished by the most keen eyesight when observing objects flowing past and remembered better than others what usually appeared first, what after, and what at the same time, and on this basis predicted the future, then, do you think, the one who has already freed himself from the bonds would long for all this, and would he envy those whom the prisoners revere and who are influential among them? Or he would experience what Homer is talking about, that is, he would strongly desire "… like a day laborer, working in the field, serving a poor plowman to get his daily bread" and, rather, endure anything, just not to share the ideas of the prisoners and not to live like them?

“I think he'd rather endure anything than live like that.

- Consider also this: if such a person again went downhill and sat down in the same place, wouldn't his eyes be covered with darkness at such a sudden departure from the light of the Sun?

- Certainly.

“What if he had to compete with these eternal prisoners again, examining the meaning of those shadows? Until his vision dulls and his eyes get used to it - and that would take a long time - wouldn't it seem that he is ridiculous? They would say about him that he returned from his ascent with damaged eyesight, which means that you shouldn't even try to go up. And whoever would set about freeing the prisoners in order to lead them upward, would they not have killed him if he had fallen into their hands?

“They would certainly have been killed.

- So, my dear, this comparison should be applied to everything that was said earlier: the area covered by vision is like a prison dwelling, and the light from the fire is likened to the power of the Sun in it. The ascent and contemplation of things that are higher is the ascent of the soul into the realm of the intelligible. If you allow all this, then you will comprehend my cherished thought - as soon as you strive to know it - and God only knows if it is true. So, this is what I see; in what is knowable, the idea of the good is the limit, and it is hardly distinguishable, but as soon as you distinguish it there, the conclusion suggests itself that it is she who is the cause of everything that is right and beautiful. In the realm of the visible, she generates light and its ruler, and in the realm of the intelligible, she herself is the mistress, on whom truth and understanding depend, and whoever wants to consciously act both in private and in public life must look to her.

- I agree with you as far as it is available to me.

- Then be at the same time with me in this: do not be surprised that those who have come to all this do not want to deal with human affairs, their souls always strive upward. Yes, this is natural, since it corresponds to the picture drawn above.

Plato

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