The Allegory of the cave is Plato’s theory about the world we live in. It is a cave where humans are prisoners; they don’t know they are prisoners. They only see the shadows on the wall and that’s how they perceive reality and are not aware that there is a bigger reality than they can ever know. Humans are imprisoned by their bodies and what they perceive by sight only, for them the cave is the only reality they know. Plato goes further by pointing out what would happen if one of these prisoners was to come out of the cave and be shown the light or be enlighten to the truth. Being able to see the “real world”. The person would most likely be frightened and will want to immediately return back to the cave. Being that the cave is what he is familiar with. Many however would accept the truth and embrace it, and finally see the world for what it truly is. They will realize that the life they live was false and full of deception.
They will begin to understand the truth and feel pity for those still living inside the cave. The enlighten person would seek to free the others from darkness and show them the light. However many in the cave would most likely laugh at him and will refuse to acknowledge any truth beyond their current existence in the cave. Therefore, truth must be experience rather than told.
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