The Allegory of the Cave - Week 1

In the Allegory of the Cave, Socrates suggests that, without philosophical education, we are all like the prisoners in the cave. What are your thoughts on this? How is philosophy supposed to be liberating? Do you think Socrates is right to be so pessimistic about life without philosophy?

       According to Socrates, the path of a philosophical education is a hard one to walk. Without philosophical education, we as humans lack that pursuit and Instead of gaining knowledge, we act like the prisoners in the cave and do exactly what we are told to do. Our society can be compared to the society of the prisoners. From the moment they were born, the prisoners were chained up so that they could not look in any direction except straight ahead. Shadows were cast behind them and they thought these shadows were real. For them a tree was nothing more but grey shadows and the stories being illustrated was their reality. They were told to never turn their heads and the prisoners obeyed every command. Our society today follows those same rules. When we are born, we are taught that we have to go to school, get an education, find a job, and then get married. No one questions this order of life because that is how it has always been done. It is what our parents did and their parents before that. Out of the entire group of prisoners, there was just one man who questioned this. He wanted to know what was on the opposite side of the wall and he took the risk to find out. He was not like all of the other prisoners who believed everything they were told. He wanted to gain more knowledge and his curiosity is what led him to achieve his pursuit of wisdom or philosophical education.  If he just followed his society and lived his life according to their norms, he would have never attained philosophical education. Is there a higher truth in our society that exists? I would sometimes question my parents when they explained the way they were brought up. At times, I would even revolt and try things my way to see if I can come up with a better outcome. I believe we are living in a society where sophists are roaming around telling us that there is no higher truth, no other reality, life is the way we live it now and there is no other knowledge to gain from this.  

       I believe Philosophy to be liberating because the prisoner who went in search of the truth attained freedom. He achieved freedom from his bonds, freedom from his life in the cave, and he even found happiness in his freedom. At first he rejected what he first saw and thought to himself that this can’t be real. However, after going into the light and being blinded by the sun, facing the pain on his eyes, he became liberated and realized that there was a higher truth.  The prisoner was amazed to find out a whole other world existed and wanted to share his treasure with the rest of his society but no one took him seriously. They all thought he was a fool and had lost his mind. If they had listened to him, they would have also been liberated and they would have shared the same happiness and joy he found in a life without bonds. However, because they did not want to go against their rules of life, they ended up living a miserable life compared to the prisoner who escaped. Attaining the knowledge of philosophy may also do the same for us. As I explained, in our society we wake up and go to work or school, from there we shop and go home. We may participate in an activity every so often, but our lifestyles don’t change. Socrates mentions the sun as the ‘good’ and therefore liberating the prisoner once he was introduced to the light. If we were to be liberated from the teachings of philosophy, what consequences would we face in today’s society? Would we also have a trial as Socrates did for our philosophical education?

       I do agree with Socrates that life is pessimistic without philosophy but as the cliché goes, “Ignorance is Bliss”. In his story, the prisoners in the cave were leading a miserable life. They lived in darkness and in chains that prevented them from moving. They were unhappy but were too afraid to change anything. When the escaped prisoner came back to help them escape in order to live a better and happier life, they laughed at him. They were scared to admit that the prisoner could actually be telling the truth. It was easier for them to pretend that he was crazy rather than to come together and change their way of life. If they had the wisdom, they would have known the prisoner was telling the truth and they would have all lead optimistic lives instead of pessimistic lives. I believe in today’s society we do reside in a cave blinded from the higher truth. As I said before if we were to gain the knowledge that Socrates wanted us to be aware of, how would we be able to get along in society? Just like Socrates, we would have an enmity with many people for questioning their wisdom and then get in trouble (arrested, ticket, death sentence). Without philosophy we are constantly taking orders from others to live blind life in the dark, Socrates believes that if we face the pain to see the brighter truth, we can be liberated. I do agree that life can be pessimistic without philosophy, but in today’s society, how will we know when we are liberated?