Plato's The Myth Of The Cave

The Myth of the Cave In the Myth of the Cave Plato is having Socrates describe a group of people whom are called prisoners, that have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives. While the prisoners are chained up they are facing a blank wall. The prisoners watch shadows that seem to be projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them. For fun the prisoners decided to give the shadows names. Socrates clarifies the shadows the be the prisoners' reality. Socrates explains how the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave (prison) and comes to understand that the shadows on the wall are not reality at all, they can be perceived as the true form of reality rather than the manufactured or made up reality that the prisoners see in the shadows. While reading this it quickly made me think about people having

One day the prisoners manage to break their chains, and discover that their reality was not what they thought it was. Which in Socrates mind he was saying that they came to their senses, as most adults do at one point and finally tell their parents that they were right all along about any situation. The prisoners finally discovered the sun, which Plato used as an analogy for the fire. Like the fire that cast light on the walls of the cave, the human way of mind is forever compelled to the impressions that are received through the senses whether we like it or not. Even if these interpretations are a misrepresentation of reality, we cannot somehow break free from the bonds of our human state of mind. We cannot free ourselves from our phenomenal state just as the prisoners could not free themselves from their chains. If, however, we were to miraculously escape our enslavement, we would find a world that we could not understand as the prisoners did not understand any other reality than the shadows on the