Raman, Thought Experiments, Uncategorized

The Allegory of the Cave

Ok, so before I start commenting on specific thought experiments I want to stop and explain what thought experiments are and why they are important. Often times philosophers find themselves dealing with very conceptual, multifaceted questions that are too abstract and complex to meaningfully discuss. To get around this, they will often create thought experiments. Thought experiments, like science experiments, seek to isolate the variable being studied to allow for meaningful exploration. This usually takes the form of setting up a fictitious scenario in which people are confronted either with a purer form of the initial question or some allegorical situation.

To illustrate this, consider Plato’s famous “Allegory of the Cave” (or “Allegory of the Den” depending on the translation). In the allegory, Socrates (Plato’s teacher and the narrator of all of Plato’s dialogues) asks a friend named Glaucon to imagine that there are prisoners in a cave chained against a wall. Behind them there is a fire and a walkway (see image). Throughout the day, puppeteers walk down the walkway with puppets that cast shadows on the wall. The men can see the shadows, but they cannot see the objects themselves. If the shadow were of a book, the prisoners, knowing nothing else of books, would say that they see a book. We know that what they see is merely a shadow of a book, an approximation of the real object, but they would not understand this.

Socrates asks Glaucon to consider what would happen if a prisoner was released and able to see the sun and real objects in their true forms. Glaucon observes that he would likely be put-off at first, but that he would soon come to understand that these new objects were real and that the old ones were all shadows. Socrates then asks what the man would do if he was taken back into the cave and made to again watch the shadows. Glaucon points out that he would likely be frustrated by the triviality of it all, and that he would be especially incapable of trying to assign meaning to the shadows like the other men, since he would know that the shadows were not really the objects the men assumed they were.

Plato wants us to learn a few things from this allegory. Specifically, he trying to illustrate the life of people who do not understand his theory of forms. The theory of forms holds that the universe has a creator and that there exists only one of each object/concept in the world, which is located in the mind of the creator. According to Plato, the physical incarnations of these forms (the name given to the original object/concept) are merely copies of the forms and are therefore imperfect. Plato equates these copies to the shadows on the walls of the cave and himself to the man who has been let out to see the original objects, the forms.

While few people seriously believe his theory today, there is still much to be learned from the allegory. While Plato intended it to represent ignorance of the forms, it can really be used with any kind of ignorance. It is also commonly used to illustrate the concept that, while we develop perceptions of objects in our minds, these perceptions are distinct from the objects that created them and not all of our “knowledge” about these objects is correct.

Hopefully this has helped you to see how thought experiments can be useful in illustrating complicated concepts. I picked an easier one for the first post, but I will try to get into some more complicated and abstract ideas as the semester progresses. On a side note, I am trying to decide whether or not to discuss paradoxes on this blog. They have a completely distinct purpose from thought experiments, but they are also useful ways of thinking about tough questions and force readers to challenge their minds. If you have an opinion, let me know in a comment.

 

platoscave

https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm

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5 thoughts on “The Allegory of the Cave

  1. kmm6978 says:

    Brendan, you are actually my favorite. If you do decide to do philosophical thought experiments this semester, you have earned yourself a dedicated reader.

    Now I am not entirely sure of the aim of these posts, but I think the thing that you did exceptionally well, holds you back at the same time. You were able to give an incredibly detailed account of the Cave, and I will not need say much more than this.

    The reason that I feel that this holds you back is that the description is the majority of your post, rather than the foreground. I may be alone in this, but I would have really liked to see you extrapolate some of your unique ideas into your post. I personally thought it was really interesting to see Plato’s recurring 3-pronged/tiered explanation of the world. For instance, Freud had the 3 tiered explanation ego, superego, and id…. Maybe this somewhat mirrors the tiered existence in Plato. Id like to talk about this more, but I will cut it here for this blog.

    -Kyke

  2. nxd5147 says:

    I adore the Allegory of the Cave! I think that while the story is an allegory, there are tons of different meanings that can be taken from the story where Plato could have not intended. My engineering professor last semester discerned the message that the people who return to the cave after seeing the light were entitled to share experiences with the current prisoners. This demonstrates the enlightened world respecting people who “haven’t seen the light” and giving them the chance. Just something interesting I thought you might like. I need more philosophy so I will be back.

  3. Samantha Post says:

    Brendan,
    I enjoyed reading this! I learned about the allegory in my Phil class over the summer, but since then forgot about it. The allegory is super interesting because it can relate to how society creates perceptions of things, therefore so many things we believe and think in our lives are due solely to cultural construction. Instead of looking at the ‘true objects’, we look at the ‘shadows’, or the cultural constructions.
    On another note, paradoxes would be super interesting to read about and I didn’t think your explanation was too wordy!

  4. kbe5057 says:

    Hi Brendan,
    I had heard about Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” in my literature class my senior year of high school but I really enjoyed reading about your thoughts on the excerpt. I think it is certainly still relevant today considering many people are ignorant on a wide variety of spectrums. I look forward to reading more of your blog posts.
    -Katierose

  5. Yardyn Shraga says:

    I liked the music blog!! I’ll give this one a chance, though.
    This topic is really interesting. I was in Philosophy last semester and enjoyed it, though at times found it sometimes a little wordy and hard to understand. My recommendation would be to try to keep your explanations as basic as possible. People have trouble understanding this stuff for a reason, and normally it’s not the content, but the wording that makes it difficult. A few typo issues, but overall a really strong first post.

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