Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. The Allegory of Caves represents the senses can be misleading. Many of the prisoners only believe what they see is reality but there's more too it then that. Since the prisoners have lived their whole life in the caves they don't know any better.

2. The shadow, the cave, the sun, and the prisoners are the main sources of imagery. The shadow is the reality that the prisoners recognize and see. The cave is the darkness and prison in which the prisoners are trapped. The sun is the knowledge and truth of true reality.

3. The allegory suggests that the process to enlightenment is uncomfortable and painful. At first your eyes must adjust to the brightness and in that process your eyes may be in pain. In the end you are able to see things clearly and are basked in knowledge.

4. The shackles suggest that the prisoners are chained down to their narrow views of reality. Their minds are prisoners to their perception of reality. The cave suggests their narrow view of the world. It is a place where they are trapped and "safe" from the sun. They only know what is in the cave to be reality and nothing else.

5.  As a student the school is one thing that shackles the mind. School does provide knowledge and education but it doesn't allow one pursue knowledge of one's own free will. The student is confined to the learning environment that has been set up for them. The school is a student's cave.

6. The freed prisoner is exposed to the world and begins absorb its knowledge and reality. The prisoners are still stuck in the cave seeing shadows as reality.

7. Intellectual confusion occurs when one is exposed to too much or too little light. When exposed to too much light there is so much information you are being exposed to at once that it blinds you. Too little light leads to lack or clarity in which one does not have the whole picture and is in a sense still in the cave.

8. Cave prisoners must be directed or guided to the light. The allegory says that the state is one such entity that guides those to the light. In our case it would be the government or school. Intellectual freedom is something one must be exposed to. One cannot give another intellectual freedom it must be grasped by your own hands.

9. There is a distinction between appearances and reality because that distinction is what creates lies and deception. If you believed there isn't a distinction you are obviously still in "the cave". What you see and what is reality isn't always the same thing. Just like in the allegory the prisoners see the shadows as reality when in reality it isn't.

10. If there was not distinction between reality and appearances then what one sees is his or her reality. You cannot tell the difference therefore it makes perfect sense it is reality. But it isn't really reality but only your perception of reality.