REPUBLIC
REPUBLIC
The Allegory of the Cave—also known as the Analogy of the Cave, Plato’s Cave, or the Parable of the Cave—is an allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate “our nature in its education and want of education”. It is written as a dialogue narrated by Plato’s friend Socrates and Plato’s brother Glaucon at the beginning of Book VII. The Allegory of the Cave is presented after the metaphor of the sun and the analogy of the divided line. All three are characterized in relation to dialectic at the end of Book VII and VIII.
This is also Plato’s illustration as his attempt to answer one of the most fundamental questions of philosophy. That is, how do we know what we know? He is purporting that concepts, the knowledge of particulars as integrated into universals, exist entirely outside of the particulars, that concepts (ideas) exist first in some unknown place, a super-natural place, as a Form and that a percept (a real thing) is dependent upon or actually created by the concept. In other words, he is saying that something can come from nothing. Contrast this to his student, Aristotle, who successfully debunks Plato’s theory of the Forms as “empty talk”(Metaphysics, I.9) and proceeds to prove that something can only come from something. Therefore, percepts come first and then the human mind identifies concepts in accord with the facts. For Plato reality is ex-nihilo and for Aristotle reality is axiomatic. And so goes the wrestling rumble of the Ages, belief vs. understanding, faith vs. reason, what is not vs. what is.
This image is useful in picturing what the setup in the cave is actually supposed to look like. As you can see, the humans are forced to perceive only the shadows cast upon the wall. These define their reality.
The people are cuffed at the neck and waist by chains, making it impossible to turn or move away from the wall in front of them.
Behind them there is a large fire as well as several figures given the task of moving objects in front of the light to make shadows, amusing (and deceiving) those below them staring at the wall.
[Socrates]Socrates here is most likely being used as a character to explain Plato’s point. Unlike Socratic dialogues such as Crito and Euthyprho, there’s no additional documentation of this dialogue.
After Socrates’s death, Plato continued using him in dialogues such as this, preserving his Socratic Method And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened: --Behold! human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.
苏:接下来让我们将受过教育的人与没受过教育的人的本质比作下述情形.让我们联想一个洞穴式的地下室,它有一长长通道通向外面,可让同洞穴一样宽的一路亮光照进来.有一些人从小就住在这洞穴里,头颈和腿脚都绑着,不能转头不能走动,只能往前看着洞穴后壁.让我们再想象在他们背后远处高些的地方有东西燃烧着发出火光.在火光同这些被囚禁者之间,在洞外上面有一条路.顺着路边已筑有一带矮墙.矮墙的作用象是傀儡戏演员在自己和观众之间设的一道屏障,他们把木偶举到屏障上头去表演.
[Glaucon]Plato’s brother! I see.
格:我看过了.
[Socrates] And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.The shadows on the cave wall take numerous forms, as various as the world we see around us. The men chained up can only see these shadows, which are no more than suggestions or debased versions of the ideal forms they
represent.
随后让我们想象有一些人拿着各种器物举过墙头,从墙后面走过,有的还举着用木料.石料或其它材料制作的假人与假兽.你可以料到有的在说话,而这些过路人,有的不在说话.
[Glaucon] You have shown me a strange image, and they arestrange prisoners.
Glaucon recognizes that it’s their way of thinking that’s holding them prisoner. In this way, they’re like prisoners of the mind
随后让我们想象有一些人拿着各种器物举过墙头,从墙后面走过,有的还举着用木料.石料或其它材料制作的假人与假兽.你可以料到有的在说话,而这些过路人,有的不在说话.
[Socrates] Like ourselves,While Socrates recognizes the inability of humans to perceive forms, he also realises that he is a victim of this way of thinking himself I replied; and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?These prisoners are chained so that they only see the mere shadows on the wall and nothing else.
那么,后面路上人举着过去的东西,除了它们的阴影而外,囚徒们能看到它们别的什么吗?
[Glaucon] True, he said; how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
Another metaphor possibly attributed to how society is run. Plato’s book ‘The Republic’had a focal point of justice: is it justified to live in a society where the members (prisoners) are only able to see shadows (lies) as opposed to the true nature of the objects causing those shadows?
[Socrates] And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?
This one line makes concrete Plato’s theory of the Forms which is his chosen method of epistemology. For Plato, concepts exist in a super-natural place which then casts its presentation into the natural world we perceive. Broken down to its most irreducible primary, then, Plato is teaching that something can come from nothing. Contrast this against his student, Aristotle, who replied to Plato in his book “Metaphysics”that something can only come from something, that
percepts do not come from concepts, that, vice versa, we perceive nature first and then induce
concepts accordingly. These two principles, that something can come from nothing and that something can only come from something, have been teasing human thought, for millenia. So much so that Raphael paints in his School of Athens Plato and Aristotle in the center of everything and has Plato pointing upward and out of this world and Aristotle laying his hand down to the earth. For Plato begins with what is not, the super-natural, and Aristotle begins with what is, the natural. Belief versus understanding.
[Glaucon] Yes, he said.
[Socrates] And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?
[Glaucon] Very true.
[Socrates] And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passers-by spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?他假如被迫看火光本身,他的眼睛会感到痛苦,他会转身走开,仍旧逃向那些他能够看清并且的确认为比人家所指示的实物还更清楚更实在的影象的.不是吗?
[Glaucon] No question, he replied.
[Socrates] To them, I said, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.
he only reality or truth would be the shadows, for they have seen nothing and have no knowledge of anything else. If somebody were to challenge this belief it is likely that the prisoners would not readily believe the challenger.
Interestingly, the idea behind Plato’s allegory of the cave has received some justification from contemporary theoretical physics. As reported in Nature, simulations in 2013 have lent support to the theory that the universe as we know it is a kind of holographic projection.
苏:再说,有人如果硬拉他走上一条陡峭崎岖的坡道,直到把他拉出洞穴见到了外面的阳光,不让他中途退回去,他会觉得这样被强迫着走很痛苦,而且感到恼火;当他来到阳光下时,他会觉得眼前金星乱蹦金蛇乱串,以致无法看见任何一个目前被称为真实的事物的.你不觉得会这样吗?
[Glaucon] That is certain.
[Socrates] And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, -what will be his reply? And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, -will he not be perplexed?Even when we are presented with the truth it can sometimes be hard to believe, especially when we’ve already developed faith in something else. Human beings sometimes set up defense mechanisms because it is more comfortable to believe something that is untrue than to confront the challenging truth. Darkness is more often than not related to the unknown, mystery and enigma; light represents the truth that illuminates the darkness, but can also be blinding (sort of like the phrase “the truth hurts”). Being shown reality for the first time, the prisoner may not be able to recognize the objects which first cast the shadows, because the shadows were merely a projection of reality and will not represent the object in its entirety. Seeing reality for the first time would be a whole new learning process.Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him? 苏:那么,请设想一下,他们假如被解除禁锢,矫正迷误,你认为这时他们会怎样呢?如果真的发生如下的事情:其中有一人给解除了桎梏,被迫突然站了起来,转头环视,走动,抬头看望火光,你认为这时他会如何呢?他在做这些动作时会感觉痛苦的,并且,由于眼花潦乱,他没法看见那些他原来只看见其阴影的实物.有人如果告诉他,说他过去惯常看到的全然是虚假,现在他由于给扭向了比较真实的器物,比较地接近了实在,所见比较真实了,你认为他听了这话会说些什么呢?假如再有人把
墙头上过去的每一器物指给他看,并且逼他说出那是些什么,你不觉得,这时他会不知说什么是好,而且认为他过去所看到的阴影比现在所看到的实物更真实吗? Humans are generally more comfortable when they feel as if they are the ones in control, so when the world which they thought they knew is turned upside down by new found knowledge, people will wish to “unsee”what they have discovered and go back to their old ways in which they feel in control and try to deny the truth of these new discoveries in any and every way possible, but…It′s not just about being in control. It is more an evolutionary thing. You see the world as your social group does, it′s a learned thing. Once you are “wired”like that is not easy to “see”in a different way. If you do it would be more like a “conversion”than a evolution in thought. You are not going to see the world as a Vietnamese if you are born in Nebraska. Experiences of the world that surrounds you and your social group will define it.
Knowing how this takes places, how we “function”, how we perceive in an anthropological and neurological point of view, is maybe the only way to disconnect this autopilot. Not even scientists are free of falling on their own caves (see “The structure of scientific revolutions”by Thomas S. Kuhn).
[Glaucon] Far truer.
[Socrates] And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him? Sometimes when confronted with knowledge and truth it can be so painful we avert our eyes to the things which are more comfortable even if not so true. Reality can sometimes be hard to comprehend and false beliefs can sometimes make more sense, this idea can be applied to alot of things we endure through life
[Glaucon] True, he now.
[Socrates] And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he 's forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.
Socrates is addressing a key concept in his thoughts about enlightenment and knowledge. Philosophy is something that all men are capable of having revealed onto them. Knowledge is a painful process! It is human nature to struggle against this “binding light”of a new mindset; it is in our nature to turn back to the darkness of the cave, the comfort of our previous (although incorrect) mindsets. These new ideas and concepts shall blind man kind upon initial exposure, you can not initially comprehend these actual realities. It′s not just the importance of the new knowledge, but the pace at which the learner should be exposed. A slow pace should be employed, controlled by the teacher.
[Glaucon] Not all in a moment, he said.
[Socrates] He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will
see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?Enlightenment is a gradual process, it doesn’t just happen overnight. First the man will have to come to terms with the fact that what he has been seeing is a lie and then he will slowly over time see the world for what it truly is. But even through this enlightenment, he will still find things which compare to his past truths in the cave to be truer and more comforting than the rest of his new reality. (Hence him finding the night sky(resembling the shadows of his previous figurative life) truer than the day). Also, men find comfort and solace in possible truths which resemble those of his own experiences and will thus be more likely to believe in them, no matter how illogical these “truths”may be
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is. With the darkness in the cave standing for the ignorance of the prisoners, light as the new reality for the prisoner as he gets out of the cave, the sun is the ultimate truth as the highest degree of light and so truth
Socrates also uses the sun as a metaphor for the ultimate form, the form of the good. The sun casts light on all the things in the world, just as the form of the good casts light, or brings them into view, on all the other forms.
[Glaucon] Certainly.
[Socrates] He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
[Glaucon] Clearly, he said, he would first see the sun and then reason about him.
[Socrates] And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the cave and his fellow-prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?
[Glaucon] Certainly, he would.
[Socrates] And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer.
Better to be the poor servant of a poor master, and to endure anything, rather than think as they
do and live after their manner?
[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, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
[Glaucon] To be sure, he said.
[Socrates] And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the cave, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
[Glaucon] No question, he said.
[Socrates] This entire allegory, I said, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison-house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.
[Glaucon] I agree, he said, as far as I am able to understand you.
[Socrates] Moreover, I said, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted.
[Glaucon] Yes, very natural.
[Socrates] And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?
[Glaucon] Anything but surprising, he replied.
[Socrates] Any one who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind's eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the cave.
[Glaucon] That, he said, is a very just distinction.
[Socrates] But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.
[Glaucon] They undoubtedly say this, he replied.
[Socrates] Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.
[Glaucon] Very true.
[Socrates] And must there not be some art which will effect conversion in the easiest and quickest manner; not implanting the faculty of sight, for that exists already, but has been turned in the wrong direction, and is looking away from the truth?
[Glaucon] Yes, he said, such an art may be presumed.
[Socrates] And whereas the other so-called virtues of the soul seem to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise, the of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable; or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe the narrow intelligence flashing from the keen eye of a clever rogue --how eager he is, how clearly his paltry soul sees the way to his end; he is the reverse of blind, but his keen eyesight is forced into the service of evil, and he is mischievous in proportion to his cleverness.
[Glaucon] Very true, he said.
[Socrates] But what if there had been a circumcision of such natures in the days of their youth; and they had been severed from those sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking, which, like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth, and which drag them down and turn the vision of their souls upon the things that are below --if, I say, they had been released from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now.
[Glaucon] Very likely.
[Socrates] Yes, I said; and there is another thing which is likely. or rather a necessary inference from what has preceded, that neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of State; not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is the rule of all their actions, private as well as public; nor the latter, because they will not act at all except upon compulsion, fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the blest.
[Glaucon] Very true, he replied.
[Socrates] Then, I said, the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of all-they must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.
[Glaucon] What do you mean?
[Socrates] I mean that they remain in the upper world: but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the cave, and partake of their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.
[Glaucon] Plato’s brother!But is not this unjust? he said; ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better?
[Socrates] You have again forgotten, my friend, I said, the intention of the legislator, who did not aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another; to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the State.
[Glaucon] True, he said, I had forgotten.
[Socrates] Observe, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to have a care and providence of others; we shall explain to them that in other States, men of their
class are not obliged to share in the toils of politics: and this is reasonable, for they grow up at their own sweet will, and the government would rather not have them. Being self-taught, they cannot be expected to show any gratitude for a culture which they have never received. But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens, and have educated you far better and more perfectly than they have been educated, and you are better able to share in the double duty. Wherefore each of you, when his turn comes, must go down to the general underground abode, and get the habit of seeing in the dark. When you have acquired the habit, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the cave, and you will know what the several images are, and what they represent, because you have seen the beautiful and just and good in their truth. And thus our State which is also yours will be a reality, and not a dream only, and will be administered in a spirit unlike that of other States, in which men fight with one another about shadows only and are distracted in the struggle for power, which in their eyes is a great good. Whereas the truth is that the State in which the rulers are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most quietly governed, and the State in which they are most eager, the worst.
[Glaucon] Quite true, he replied.
[Socrates] And will our pupils, when they hear this, refuse to take their turn at the toils of State, when they are allowed to spend the greater part of their time with one another in the heavenly light?
[Glaucon] Impossible, he answered; for they are just men, and the commands which we impose upon them are just; there can be no doubt that every one of them will take office as a stern necessity, and not after the fashion of our present rulers of State.
[Socrates] Yes, my friend, I said; and there lies the point. You must contrive for your future rulers another and a better life than that of a ruler, and then you may have a well-ordered State; for only in the State which offers this, will they rule who are truly rich, not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life. Whereas if they go to the administration of public affairs, poor and hungering after the' own private advantage, thinking that hence they are to snatch the chief good, order there can never be; for they will be fighting about office, and the civil and domestic broils which thus arise will be the ruin of the rulers themselves and of the whole State.
[Glaucon] Most true, he replied.
[Socrates] And the only life which looks down upon the life of political ambition is that of true philosophy. Do you know of any other?
[Glaucon] Indeed, I do not, he said.
[Socrates] And those who govern ought not to be lovers of the task? For, if they are, there will be rival lovers, and they will fight.
[Glaucon] No question.
[Socrates] Who then are those whom we shall compel to be guardians? Surely they will be the men who are wisest about affairs of State, and by whom the State is best administered, and who at the same time have other honors and another and a better life than that of politics?
[Glaucon] They are the men, and I will choose them, he replied.
[Socrates] And now shall we consider in what way such guardians will be produced, and how they are to be brought from darkness to light, -- as some are said to have ascended from the world below to the gods?
[Glaucon] By all means, he replied.
[Socrates] The process, I said, is not the turning over of an oyster-shell, but the turning round of a soul passing from a day which is little better than night to the true day of being, that is, the ascent from below, which we affirm to be true philosophy?
[Glaucon] Quite so.
And should we not enquire what sort of knowledge has the power of effecting such a change?
[Socrates]
Certainly.
What sort of knowledge is there which would draw the soul from becoming to being? And another consideration has just occurred to me: You will remember that our young men are to be warrior athletes.
[Glaucon]
Yes, that was said.
[Socrates]
Then this new kind of knowledge must have an additional quality? What quality?
[Glaucon]
Usefulness in war.
[Socrates]
Yes, if possible.