View From Plato's Cave

Perhaps the contemplation of life is best viewed in hindsight. Take education. Early on, still in the nest, students might learn, think, and write about essentially abstract concepts. Sophomores (literally, "wise fools") might churn out philosophical papers, often parroting the works of others, without the benefit of any real life experience. Maybe a bit presumptuous.

Equally lacking, though, is a life made up of random experiences absent any sort of overall philosophical reckoning. The successful life, then, would seem to feature mutually reinforcing principles i.e. philosophy shaping one's experiences with experiences informing one's philosophy. Measurement against such an ideal is probably a later-stage life exercise. We'll discuss those philosophical reflections that may have actually made a difference in our respective lives. One candidate would certainly have to be Plato's "Allegory of the Cave." 

Plato's two-thousand-year-old insight is as profound as it is simple to illustrate. Imagine a scene in which a group of prisoners lives in the middle of a dark underground cave. These prisoners have been there since childhood, their legs and necks bound, such that their gaze is fixed dead ahead due to these physical constraints. The only light in the cave is that which is cast from a fire behind them. Located between the fire and the back of the prisoners' heads is a walkway over which people people carry various objects on their heads. The constrained prisoners cannot see the people and the objects behind them, their existence being evident to them solely by the shadows cast against the front wall. Long story short, the prisoners accept such shadows as their reality (click here for a splendid and fuller six-minute description: Allegory Of The Cave ). 

Continuing with the allegory, Plato suggests the prisoners might engage in "games" of guessing which shadow would next emerge, the one with the correct guess declared the master of nature. One prisoner then escapes from the underground cave into the outside world and, after his eyes adjust to the blinding sun, sees the world as it truly is. Thereby shocked and enlightened, he returns to the cave in order to inform the others of the truth, only to be rebuffed by these disbelieving cave dwellers who threaten to kill him if he tries to set them free as they struggle to retain the comfort of the world as they perceive it.

In Plato's theory, the cave dwellers represent people who believe that knowledge comes from that which people see and hear in the world -- empirical evidence. Such believers in empirical knowledge are trapped in a "cave" of misunderstanding. The shadows represent mere perceptions of the truth with the masters of the so-called games, actually knowing nothing of the truth, are undeserving of any bestowed admiration. The cave people's belief in the "truth" of the shadows represents the majority's unthinking acceptance of that which is cast by the artificial light. 

One would think the current quarantine phenomenon -- with the attendant reduction of ambient noise and (for some) the luxury of additional time to think --  would be the ideal opportunity in which to reflect on the shadows of the false light of various fictive constructs e.g. money, religion, politics, education, fame, love, beauty (idea for a future MM topic "Die, Disney, Die"). But, in a paradox of the times, the allegory borders on a kind of sad literal truth with many sequestered individuals choosing to engage with the outside world through the medium of the screen -- talk about distortions wrought by these electronic shadows. 

Plato's Republic is thus as relevant today as it was some 2,400 years ago.