something casting the shadow. You see the shadow of an animal. You think it
may be a horse, but you are not quite sure. So you turn around and see the
horse itself—which of course is infinitely more beautiful and sharper in outline
than the blurred “horse-shadow.” Plato believed similarly that all natural
phenomena are merely shadows of the eternal forms or ideas. But most
people are content with a life among shadows. They give no thought to what
is casting the shadows. They think shadows are all there are, never realizing
even that they are, in fact, shadows. And thus they pay no heed to the
immortality of their own soul.
Out of the Darkness of the Cave
Plato relates a myth which illustrates this. We call it the Myth of the
Cave. I’ll retell it in my own words.
Imagine some people living in an underground cave. They sit with their
backs to the mouth of the cave with their hands and feet bound in such a way
that they can only look at the back wall of the cave. Behind them is a high
wall, and behind that wall pass human-like creatures, holding up various
figures above the top of the wall. Because there is a fire behind these figures,
they cast flickering shadows on the back wall of the cave. So the only thing
the cave dwellers can see is this shadow play. They have been sitting in this
position since they were born, so they think these shadows are all there are.
Imagine now that one of the cave dwellers manages to free himself from
his bonds. The first thing he asks himself is where all these shadows on the
cave wall come from. What do you think happens when he turns around and
sees the figures being held up above the wall? To begin with he is dazzled by
the sharp sunlight. He is also dazzled by the clarity of the figures because
until now he has only seen their shadow. If he manages to climb over the wall
and get past the fire into the world outside, he will be even more dazzled. But
after rubbing his eyes he will be struck by the beauty of everything. For the
first time he will see colors and clear shapes. He will see the real animals and
flowers that the cave shadows were only poor reflections of. But even now he
will ask himself where all the animals and flowers come from. Then he will see
the sun in the sky, and realize that this is what gives life to these flowers and
animals, just as the fire made the shadows visible.
The joyful cave dweller could now have gone skipping away into the
countryside, delighting in his new-found freedom. But instead he thinks of all
the others who are still down in the cave. He goes back. Once there, he tries
to convince the cave dwellers that the shadows on the cave wall are but
flickering reflections of “real” things. But they don’t believe him. They point to
the cave wall and say that what they see is all there is. Finally they kill him.
What Plato was illustrating in the Myth of the Cave is the philosopher’s
road from shadowy images to the true ideas behind all natural phenomena.
He was probably also thinking of Socrates, whom the “cave dwellers” killed
because he disturbed their conventional ideas and tried to light the way to true
insight. The Myth of the Cave illustrates Socrates’ courage and his sense of
pedagogic responsibility.
Plato’s point was that the relationship between the darkness of the cave
and the world beyond corresponds to the relationship between the forms of
the natural world and the world of ideas. Not that he meant that the natural
world is dark and dreary, but that it is dark and dreary in comparison with the