1 Plato 1 · On the Cave and the Light. Handed down at the Academy, from his Republic
What is set down here Plato said between his fortieth year and his seventieth. In chapter 4 he records that he changed his mind, and refuses to strike out the older saying. Where he speaks of the Good, this scripture takes the smaller reading: that which makes each thing what it is, and is not itself one of the things.
1.1Glaucon, I want you to picture something. When you have pictured it, you will know what we are.
1.2There is a cave, and it is deep. In it are people who have been there since childhood.
1.3Their necks and their legs are bound, so that they can look in one direction only, at the wall.
1.4Behind them there is a fire. Between the fire and them runs a road, and along the road men carry objects past.
1.5They cannot see the fire, or the road, or the men.
1.6They see only the shadows the objects throw on the wall.
1.7All their lives they have seen nothing but shadows, and so they call the shadows "things".
1.8Among them are clever ones who can tell which shadow comes first and which comes after.
1.9The rest honour these as wise men and set garlands on them.
1.10And they are clever. They know the order of the shadows better than anyone.
1.11Understand this: such a man has not lied, and he has not said anything false.
1.12Inside the cave every sentence he speaks is true.
1.13It is only that the word "true" is one size smaller in there.
1.14I am not describing other people. Glaucon, I am describing you, and myself.