What is the meaning of life? You might say. War is now a book of opportunities or a journey. Such questions do come to mind sometimes. Plato’s cave is all about this. Welcome to People’s Reflections. Before reading this article, please don’t forget to follow this page and press like. Plato has mentioned the conversation between the script and his student in his book Republic, in which he asks to imagine a group of people who are imprisoned in a cave since childhood. Their hands, legs and nose are all tied with chains. Therefore, they are fixed at one place. Those people have been seeing the shadows formed on the wall in front of them all their life. 

The security says that a fire keeps burning at some height behind them. There is a road between that fire and these people on which people keep coming and going. They have things in their hands which form shadows on the wall in front of those prisoners. The prisoners consider these shadows to be true because they have been seeing these shadows all their life, so this is the truth for them. Over time, the prisoners have given names to these shadows. One day, a prisoner gets free from his chains. He follows the light coming into the cave and comes out of the cave. This prisoner had come out of the cave for the first time in his life. His eyes could not bear the sunlight because he was used to darkness only. But slowly his eyes adjust themselves according to the sunlight.

All his life, this prisoner had been seeing only shadows. But now he saw these things in real and he was told that only these things are real and the shadows are an illusion. He refused to believe this because the shadows were clearly visible. All this seemed very painful to him. He wanted to go back to his cave as soon as possible. But slowly the prisoner learned to accept the new reality. He saw how colorful this world is. He saw the stars shining at night. All this seemed real to him because he was seeing something like this for the first time in his life. Then one day he directly saw the sun, the only source of all the things he had seen. The sun reminds him of the dark days in the cave and his companions and now he does not feel connected to their thoughts at all. So he goes back to the Prisoner Cave to tell them about his new world. Now he faces a lot of problems while going inside the cave because he is not used to that darkness, so it takes a lot of time to reach inside. His companions think that the outside world has made their friend blind and weak. 

As soon as he tells them about the outside world, they all forcefully stop him and refuse to listen to him. They even try to kill the person who wants to free them. Plato said that human life can be understood through this degree. Whatever we see or are shown in life, we accept it as the complete truth without thinking. We do not even try to get to the bottom of those events, but believe in them blindly just like those prisoners. We do not even stop to think that maybe these shadows have been distorted or changed. Like those prisoners, we are also imprisoned in a world full of shadows. 

All this seems so comfortable that we do not want to be free from it, because for us this world is the truth. But still the truth can be seen and found. No matter how difficult it may seem. We all have the ability to be aware of the illusions around us. Just like that prisoner. Confronting reality can be very painful. Just like that prisoner felt when he saw light for the first time because reality is completely different. It proves your past life to be a lie and in this situation the existence of man comes under threat. Truth always We live in a realistic world, which keeps changing continuously. Therefore it is impossible to get knowledge here. Seasons change. Buildings get shattered. Great civilizations come and go. 

Humans and all living things die. The present condition also constantly deceives. It seems that nothing is true. Plato calls this constantly changing and deceptive world as the “Truth of the Real”. There is a permanent reliable world behind the world which is called Plato World Form. They say that form which is non-physical shows accurate reality. They believe that it is only form that can tell true knowledge. Like you imagine a circle. Now what you have imagined is the perfect form of that circle. When you drop it, it will not be as perfect as you thought. Because this drawing is a copy of that perfect imagination. The picture of the circle that you imagined is a perfect form and what you have drawn is its perfect version. 

Plato says that form is an idea that adjusts only in imagination. Form is not limited to geometry only. Plato says, that whatever you see sets a perfect example of it. Like a plane, a man, a tree, a cloud, an apple, two houses. It can be anything. Talking about the modern world, what is shown to us on social media platforms, in movies or in advertisements or in many other daily life things is just an illusion. We consider it to be true and make ourselves feel low or start comparing ourselves, which has no point. So whatever we see is a shadow of all these things. Just like prisoners. Just like they see shadows. 

Plato says, the form that we imagine is the only perfect form and whatever we see in reality is its copy. It can be perfect and most of the time, it is. As soon as a philosopher recognizes the reality and its name-changing nature, then it is his duty to go back to that cave and make his colleagues aware of their illusion. No matter how much force they use to stop him. It has to be noted here that Security was given the death sentence for this very reason. Security was always trying to free people from illusion. That is why Security was considered a threat to democracy. Plato also gives a political statement through the cave. He believes that only those people who have the courage to come out of that cave and see the Sun directly should rule. He believes that only a philosopher has the power to understand and see reality. Therefore, the ideal ruler should be a philosopher king. Only when such a person comes to power, will people get a chance to come out of the cave and see the light. 

As you move forward in life, can you say with confidence that whatever you see is true? Yes, it can happen or it can happen no. But who knows, maybe one day you will also see that light. Will you try to follow the light at that time? Knowing that to follow it you may have to go against family and friends or you will prefer to stay in your comfortable illusion. Light or shadow, this is a hard choice. But don’t panic. You are not alone. We are all trapped in this cave. 

Thanks for reading. If you liked the article, then do like and share it and do not forget to follow this page for such information articles in future.

.    .    .