Original post
May 20, 2020
“What people want to see never has anything to do with the truth.”
(Roberto Bolaño, Chilean writer)
We can only perceive that which our mind is able to comprehend. What people tend to see has little do to with any truth they may believe they understand. It would appear that you can know and not know at the same time. It would appear that you can hold two opposing views. It would appear that one part of the intellect does battle with another, knowing something to be true when we recognize it isn’t. People rarely see truth, they see constructions. They hold several opinions at the same time. They rebuke others while they do the very same things. What we know is just like shadow, bouncing around Plato’s cave searching for some philosophy. At some point, I would assume aging has somewhat of an effect on our imprisonment. I had always just accepted my reality, never questioning whether it was accurate. Maturing seems to have given me reason to look beyond what I think I see. Getting old has opened my eyes.
“A group of prisoners are chained inside a cave all their lives, facing a blank wall. The prisoners can only see shadows projected on the wall - of objects passing in front of a fire behind them. They give names to these shadows. And because the prisoner’s have known or seen nothing else in life, these shadows become their reality.” (Radhika Mia, Indian writer)
Plato’s cave, or the Allegory of the Cave, first appeared in the Greek philosopher’s masterpiece Republic (375 BCE). The work is written as a dialogue between Plato’s brother Glaucon and his mentor Socrates, who narrates. Within his hypothesis, the cave “represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the world.” Any evidence we know comes from “experiment and observation rather than theory.” Plato argues that “believers of empirical knowledge are trapped in a ‘cave’ of misunderstanding.” Through this symbolism, Plato was able to address “the effect of education (παιδεία) and the lack of it on our nature.” Anything that corrupts our belief system, and the very ideas we have regarding our reality, we seek to purge from that which we have fabricated. This state of distortion, regardless, we believe to be the truth. It is a false representation.
In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato “distinguishes between people who mistake sensory knowledge for the truth and people who really do see the truth.” In the cave, three prisoners are bound in chains, only able to face forward. A wall of stone is their lifelong view. They have spent their entire existence in this position. None have been able to escape so they have never seen beyond their reality. A fire rages behind them, casting shadows upon the wall before them. What they see is their only truth; a shadow of the real truth. In time, the shadows become familiar. They name each one. These apparitions become their entire world, they have never known anything else. One of the prisoners manages to escape. He is quite lost at the onset. He does not recognize the world around him. He adjusts. He begins to embrace the new reality. The shadows all lied to him. His former life turned out to be rather useless.
Plato asserted that “knowledge gained through the senses is no more than opinion and that, in order to have real knowledge, we must gain it through philosophical reasoning.” Our emancipation allows us to think for ourselves. Recognizing that our former view of reality is incorrect and invalid, we begin to see a different view. This intellectual journey is necessary if one is to discover true meaning. Some remain. Some refuse to face their shadows. They hold on tight to whatever falsehood they can. We cling to what we think we know. Rather than an enlightened position, many would rest in their manufactured accuracy. They are held in their very own prison, a prison from which they could escape but do not.
“On the walls of the cave, only the shadows are the truth”
(Republic: The Allegory of the Cave, Plato 375 BCE)
For Plato, the issue rested in human perception. The captive who escapes the cave is like a philosopher who has been confined by their intellect. Freedom from one’s chains can lead to freedom from one’s erroneous reasoning. There are those who refuse to see the light. Some do not wish to be free. They do not know of the better life and they care not to see it. We are all bound by our senses. The impressions can be lasting, often unending. We must learn how to turn ourselves in a new direction and in so doing change our interpretations. We struggle against the human condition, while most manifest the same. They seem unable to free themselves from a “phenomenal state,” just like those prisoners in that cave were not able to escape from the chains. Freedom in thinking may result in facing a reality we do not understand. In the Republic, the escapee returns to that cave to share his circumstance and free the others from their burden. Those prisoners do not see things that way. They do not believe a word he says and even threaten to kill him if he sets them free. Not everyone wishes to escape from their bondage. Some people cannot face the truth. Not ever.
“We are finally living in Plato's cave, if we consider how those who were imprisoned within the cave - who could do nothing but watch those shadows passing on the back wall - were convinced that those shadows were their one and only reality. I see a profound similarity to all this in the epoch we’re now living in. We no longer live simply through images: we live through images that don’t even exist, which are the result not of physical projection but of pure virtuality.” (Jose Saramago, Portuguese writer)
I am convinced that getting older should lead us to an appreciation of clear thinking and enable us to find revelation through study and the search for our own truth. It appears that people over 50 are much more reflective than during their youthful state. Age, if you allow it, may offer itself as a window rather than a wall. The more we mature, the more we offer ourselves to the truth. Still, some refuse to go that way. They are comfortable in their blind ambition. Often, I compare Plato’s position with growing old in general. Once you cross the line, I believe the universe will be much more friendly. Hindsight occurs when one learns to walk away. The idea behind Plato’s cave has its merit. Enlightenment will leave the cave behind you and may find you thinking for yourself. It can implore us to look beyond what we think we see, what our senses tell us we see, and reveal what is really there, waiting.
Some people cannot see truth because they have created their own.
Photo
https://www.kidpid.com.doc/platos-allegory-of-the-cave/
Sources
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave
https://www.philosophyzer.com/the-allegory-of-the-cave-by-plato-summary-and-meaning/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave
https://faculty.washington.edu/smcohen/320/cave.htm
https://web.stanford.edu/class/ihum40/cave.pdf
https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/hide-and-seek/201906/platos-allegory-the-cave
https://medium.com/@radhika.perrot/what-i-learned-about-the-human-condition-from-platos-cave-50e18d8e2d77
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