Explanation of the Allegory
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is an important component of his voluminous philosophical work, The Republic. Within the framework of this treatise, the ancient Greek scholar seeks to convey to his readers the idea of how one must perceive one’s surroundings in order to arrive at arete, or moral virtue. According to the plot of this allegory, the people sitting in the cave can only see the shadows on the horizon. The latter’s world seems scary and depressing to them and does not arouse a desire to get out.
At the same time, if one day a person can free themselves from imprisonment and be outside, they, having seen all the beauty of the real world, cannot convince those who remain inside it. Once back in prison, a person, having been in the world, will not be able to see them, and will appear to be insane. The prisoners will have the judgment that the outside world of shadows has put their tribe members to death.
Truth lies only in understanding forms at the level of consciousness, as in the case of the people outside the cave. Based on this, the prisoners saw shadows and only formed a preconception of external reality. However, if they had built their thought out of rationality, they might have concluded that the picture they observed was only a small part of the actual state of affairs. In that case, people would be more inclined to believe the liberated prisoner.
The Allegory’s Relevance to Modern Political, Scientific, and Social Discourse
In the present tense, this allegory may be about how society perceives events in the world. For example, when analyzing any political news item, it is essential to understand that the latter is presented by one source from only one plane of thought and cannot reflect the complete picture of the world.
In scientific discourse, this allegory is relevant when working with sources of information. To collect a reliable picture within the framework of a theoretical question, it is essential to have access to the works of different authors, representatives of different methodologies and schools of thought, so that the angle of view on the problem would be wider. Under this condition, scholars and the average person have a great chance of being closer to objectivity.