Kessler's The Myth Of The Cave

The Myth of the Cave, also known as the Allegory of the Cave, was written by Greek philosopher, Plato, in Book VII of The Republic. This piece was written to “compare the effect of education and the lack of it upon our human nature” (Kessler, 440), a dialogue between Plato’s brother, Glaucon, and his mentor, Socrates. In this chapter, Plato envisions the world as a dark cave, humans trapped as prisoners, and all of our experiences as shadows on a wall. Plato describes the cave like this, “imagine men to be living in an underground cave-like dwelling place, which has a way up to the light along its whole width, but the entrance is a long way up” (Kessler, 440). The prisoners have been there from childhood, and are chained and unable to turn …show more content…
There are puppeteers, who hold up puppets that cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see the actual object, they only see and hear shadows and echoes cast by the real object. Kessler explains, “such men would believe the truth to be nothing else than the shadows of the artifacts” (440), which means they would mistake these shadows as reality. The prisoners would believe the things they see on the wall were real, but in reality know nothing of the real causes of the shadows.
According to a SparkNote on The Republic, “The prisoners watch the stories that these shadows play out, and because these shadows are all they ever get to see, they believe them to be the most real things in the world” (SparkNotes). When the prisoners talk to one another, they refer only to the shadows they see. Everything they “see” is actually wrong because to see the actual object they would have to turn their head around, these prisoners represent …show more content…
The goal of education is to drag every man as far out of the cave as possible. Education should not aim at putting knowledge into the soul, but at turning the soul toward right desires”. The goal of the city as a whole is to educate people so they can focus on the Form of the Good (Kessler). The freed prisoner returns to the cave and tells everyone they are all trapped and everything they “see” is an illusion, “he had to contend again with those who had remained prisoners in recognizing those shadows while his sight was affected and his eyes had not settled down” (Kessler, 441). The prisoners believe his eyesight has been spoiled by his upward journey and “it was not worthwhile even to attempt to travel upward” (Kessler, 441). As he tries to convince them, they threaten to kill him and he only persuades a few of