Plato's Cave
Allegory of the Cave · Platonic Ideal
An analogy from the Greek Philosopher Plato in describing reality as a fire that casts light on the walls of the cave, where humans can only see the shadows of that reality. The analogy suggests that the human condition is forever bound to the impressions that are received through the senses but will never know the "true" reality.
Origin
Around 375 BCE, the Athenian philosopher Plato included the allegory in Book VII of The Republic, his dialogue on justice, governance, and the nature of knowledge. The story is voiced by Plato's teacher Socrates and used to illustrate the theory of Forms — Plato's view that the sensory world is merely a shadow of a higher, intelligible reality. The image reworks earlier philosophical arguments about the unreliability of the senses — ideas associated with Pythagoreanism and Heraclitus — into a single vivid and enduring metaphor.