Plato’s Republic—The Allegory of the Cave

Plato’s Republic—The Allegory of the Cave

From Republic Book VII, (514a–520a)

Socrates – Glaucon (different fonts indicate the speaker)

And now, I said, let use a metaphor for the difference between wisdom and ignorance: –Behold:  human beings living in a underground cave, which has a mouth open towards the light and a passage reaching all along the cave; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised path; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the path, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.