In the seventh part of the Republic, Plato explains to us the nature of existence and our perception of reality using the Allegory of the Cave. Plato uses this argument to bring into notice the importance of purity and idealism, but if we take a closer look, we can use Plato’s Cave as an analogy of the struggles of mankind in their everyday life.
The Allegory of the Cave describes, in essence, the lives of a bunch of people that are forever chained in a cave looking at a blank wall. The fire behind them reflects the shadows of the outside world on the wall, thus giving those people a sense of perception of the existence that they are living. These shadows are the reality of these prisoners. In this allegory, the fire represents a misguided attempt at understanding the real sun, which is in Plato’s words, ‘the fire that men cannot see behind.’
In this scenario, a philosopher is a person who frees himself from the shackles that kept him from perceiving the world as he should. He goes out and sees the world, but even the philosopher cannot fully comprehend the reality of the objects as they are. Rather, he might find convenience in their shadows that are reflected on the ground or any other surface. The philosopher eventually goes back to the cave to explain to his friends the true nature of reality beyond their mistaken and imperfect vision. Plato explains that in this phase, the prisoners react with aggression, holding to their perception of the world as they have known it all their lives.
This allegory is an indication that our interpretation of the reality is always bound to our senses, even though they cannot really be trusted. Even when these interpretations are an ill-formed idea of the true nature of things, we find ourselves bound to them, since we have lived our life under their shadow. You see, for a person who has lived their entire life in a cave of illusions, those reflections are more real than the reality that can be touched or felt in any other way. For that person, the brightness of the fire from their back is always more convenient than the idea of a greater source of light that is yet beyond their boundaries of comprehension.
But imagine that a person miraculously escapes the cave and comes across a world he cannot even remotely fathom. Indeed, that person knows what a ‘tree’ is, but he has never had a chance of actually getting to know the tree on a more profound sense. He has never had the chance of actually looking at it, of seeing the true shape of the tree, of perceiving the colors that dance in an eternal rhythm, of listening to the breeze as it moves the branches about. In other words, this person enters a new ‘realm’ of possibilities that was incomprehensible to him before his escape from a cave of his illusions.
And when we really think about it, that is the problem with many of us today. We resist against the idea of going after our dreams or getting out of our comfort zone because we are bound by our perceptions of how reality is. Our stubbornness dissuades us from going beyond the realm of our comprehension to begin to see a whole new world of possibilities. Our ignorance reduces our imagination to the reflections that we have lived with our entire life. The reflections on a wall that speak of a much more pure and ideal truth, but trick us into coming to terms with them and accepting them as our reality.
To consider the fact that nothing is ever really ‘impossible’ and the only limit in front of our eyes is the horizon of our imagination, we take the first step of breaking the chains that are holding us back in our caves.
Shatter the chains, let go of your illusive reflections, and begin to see a world that only moves you towards the great things that you have always dreamt of.
Remember Community: Please, if you commented on a new post I did, please always go back to the previous one because if someone in the community commented lastly because of time zone differences it will be without your upvote and that would not be fair.
My goal is to see you all with 80 upvotes and for this we need to bring more people with positive Mindset to this blog and this you can do by inviting people who follow you on your blogs and making a subtract of all posts.
You all know the goal we can reach.
The question is: Who is with me in this endeavor?
A BIG HUG!!!
