Summary of the Allegory of the Cave

The Allegory of the Cave is a conversation between two men - Socrates, and his disciple Glaucon. He describes a cave, which has an opening towards the light. In this cave are men, chained to face the back of the cave so they are unable to turn around. Behind the chained men, is a fire with a raised pathway between them and that fire. He continues by saying that there are other men crossing this pathway. Some are carrying objects, some are making sounds - some are not. The chained men, unable to turn their heads, would only see the shadows of the men and objects cast onto the back of the cave which they face. If these men were to talk to each other, it can be assumed that they would try to give names to these shadows, and if the sounds were to be echoed back from the wall, it would sound like these noises came from the shadows themselves. As a result, the truth to them would be that all that existed were moving shadows that could produce sound. If one of these men were to be freed, he would stand up and turn around and be pained by the glaring light. He would be unable to accept the fact that everything he had been seeing his whole life was just an illusion. He still clings to the belief that the objects he saw were truer than what he is seeing now. Because he is still unaccostomed to the light, he will find that his former reality is much clearer than what is being shown to him now. But as he sees and learns about the world around him, he will remember those other men whom he used to be chained up with. He will feel pity for them, as he has now seen the truth and is much wiser than them. If he were to return to his former cave, his eys, now used to the light of the outside world, would now be unable to see in the darkness of the cave. The chained men would say that he is now blind to their truth, and would not even consider what he is trying to tell them about the "true" world outside the cave.