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The Allegory of the Cave, or Plato's Cave, was presented by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work the Republic (514a–520a) to compare "the effect of education (παιδεία) and the lack of it on our nature". It is written as a dialogue between Plato's brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates, narrated by the latter. The allegory is presented after the analogy of the sun (508b–509c) and the analogy of the divided line (509d–511e). All three are characterized in relation to dialectic by the end of Books VII and VIII (531d–534e). Plato has Socrates describe an organization of people who have lived chained to the wall of your cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The individuals watch shadows projected on the wall from objects passing in front of a fire behind them, and give names to these shadows. The shadows are the prisoners' reality. Socrates explains the way the philosopher is like a prisoner who is freed from the cave and comes to recognize that the shadows on the wall aren't reality by any means, for they can perceive the real form of reality as opposed to the manufactured reality this is the shadows seen by the prisoners. The inmates of the place do not even wish to leave their prison; for they know no better life. Socrates remarks that this allegory can be paired with previous writings, namely the analogy of the sun and the analogy of the divided line. Plato commences with Socrates ask Glaucon to assume a cave where folks have been imprisoned from birth. These prisoners are chained so that their legs and necks are fixed, forcing these to gaze at the wall in front of them and not shop around at the cave, each other, or themselves (514a–b). Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between your fire and the prisoners is an elevated walkway with a low wall, behind which people walk carrying objects or puppets "of men and other living things" (514b). The individuals walk behind the wall so their bodies do not cast shadows for the prisoners to see, however the objects they carry do ("just like puppet showmen have screens in front of them of which they work their puppets" (514a)). The prisoners cannot see some of what is happening behind them, they are only able to start to see the shadows cast after the cave wall in front of them. The sounds of the people talking echo off of the walls, and the prisoners believe these sounds result from the shadows (514c). Socrates suggests that the shadows are reality for the prisoners because they have never seen anything else; they do not recognize that what they see are shadows of objects in front of a fire, significantly less these objects are inspired by real things outside the cave (514b-515a). Plato then supposes that certain prisoner is freed. This prisoner would shop around and start to see the fire. The light would hurt his eyes and make it problematic for him to start to see the objects casting the shadows. If he were told that what he's seeing is real instead of the other version of reality he sees on the wall, he would not believe it. In his pain, Plato continues, the freed prisoner would turn away and run back again to what he's accustomed to (that is, the shadows of the carried objects). He writes "... it could hurt his eyes, and he would escape by turning away to the things which he was able to check out, and these he would believe to be clearer than what was being proven to him." Plato continues: "Suppose... that someone should drag him... by force, up the rough ascent, the steep way up, rather than stop until he could drag him out in to the light of sunlight." The prisoner would be angry and in pain, which would only worsen when the radiant light of sunlight overwhelms his eyes and blinds him. "Slowly, his eyes modify to the light of sunlight. First he can only just see shadows. Gradually he can see the reflections of men and women and things in water and then later start to see the people and things themselves. Eventually, he is able to look at the stars and moon at night until finally they can look upon sunlight itself (516a)."
