The Cave

While reading The History of Western Philosophy, the very iconic Plato's Allegory of the Cave arose and made me think of one our discussion questions for this week: In what ways, if any, would you agree that our world is like a cave? While reading over the allegory, once again, I realized how accurately the imagery of a cave represents much of the world today. However, I disagree that philosophers are the only people capable of returning. I believe that a "prisoner of the cave" could have the reality of a situation revealed to them or they could have a revelation of thought that allows them to see reality. The issue isn't the fact that the world is full of people who don't know the truth or the reality of a situation, so much as they know the truth and choose to ignore it. Thus, they are like prisoner's who become freemen, able to learn more about reality, but then they choose to return to the cave. This return could be from ignorance, arrogance or many other things. I would agree, however, that many people these days, much like prisoner’s in the cave, do not seek out information. It is a built in habit, it seems, that a large majority of people prefer believing what they are told as opposed to deciding what they themselves believe or what they themselves see as reality. Whether it’s personal choice, fear, or some other force holding them back from discovering reality, there is really no excuse for the minds of humankind living in a cave away from reality.