![]() The human being can either live within the Cave or outside of it. ![]() This said, what is to follow is but a humble interpretation of the Allegory of the Cave. Hence, one could inject and insert one’s own experiences and one’s interpretation of the allegory would still be valid. The collection and the unification of those experiences create our worldview. It is these differences that produce not facts of the different realms of existence but only interpretation, since it is the capacity of each person that shapes the theme and the storyline of each experience. In the end, the only thing that perhaps remains is the acknowledgement that there are vast inward and outward differences that exists amongst mortals. All these mentioned elements have profound contribution in how we see, experience and interpret ourselves and the world in which we live. Due to the vastly different physical, psychological, emotional and intellectual capacities existing in every person, some have a more penetrating insight into the nature of existence than others. Some are extroverts and some introverts, some are intellectuals and some are emotional and feeling types, some are born into princely and some into impoverished social, moral and economic environments. We all have different personalities and temperaments. There is much wisdom contained in this statement, “There are no facts, but only interpretations,” and one could even argue that perhaps Nietzsche himself was unaware of the depth and the power of his own insight. After all, how could there be anything but interpretation given the existence of variety of temperaments and personalities and life experiences? And, perhaps Nietzsche was right in his suggestion that there are no facts but only interpretations. So fluid is this allegory that the more one puts in, the more one can take out. As there is a wonderful Islamic saying that parallels this: “the human being can ascend to such heights that even the angels will become jealous of him or will descend to such realms that even the devil flees from him.” Equally important, one can also find within the allegory social, political, philosophical, moral, ethical, and spiritual elements. That is, the human existence in its most profound and profane states. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is one of the most potent and pregnant of allegories that describe human condition in both its fallen and risen states. One of the most important allegories ever to be gifted to humankind is Allegory of the Cave. And, this simply adds to the mystery! Such is the beginning, the middle and the end.īut let us be more human in our expression!!! Mind, Body and Spirit, each desire to know with the knowledge that it knows not. Hence, as each desire to discover what it and others are, it sets out on a journey knowing not to where it may go and what it may find. Such may be the path of the wise, but not those who are still journeying towards wisdom. They would not realize that what they see are shadows of the artifacts, which are themselves inspired by real humans and animals outside of the cave.Whence comes life, the most sacred and holy? Whence and how enters life into dust? And, whence does the dust become aware of life and life of dust? Mind, Body and Spirit! Each houses, nourishes and complements the other in such ways that perhaps only silence may be an adequate response as to why it is so. Socrates suggests that, for the prisoners, the shadows of artifacts would constitute reality. There are also echoes off the shadowed wall of sounds the people walking on the road sometimes make, which the prisoners falsely believe are caused by the shadows.’ ![]() The prisoners cannot see any of this behind them, being only able to view the shadows cast upon the wall in front of them. Since these walking people are behind the wall on the walkway, their bodies do not cast shadows on the wall faced by the prisoners, but the objects they carry do. In this way, the walking people are compared to puppeteers and the low wall to the screen over which puppeteers display their puppets. Along this walkway is a low wall, behind which people walk carrying objects “…including figures of men and animals made of wood, stone and other materials.”. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between the fire and the prisoners is a raised walkway. These prisoners have been imprisoned in such a way that their legs and necks are fixed, forcing them to gaze at a wall in front of them, unable to move their heads. ‘Socrates begins by asking Glaucon (Plato’s brother) to imagine a cave inhabited by prisoners who have been imprisoned since childhood. Here is the translated text of the ‘Allegory of the Cave’: An allegory is a story in which characters and events stand for real life situations. He wrote The Republic as a series of conversations, which often featured Plato’s famous teacher Socrates. The philosopher Plato wrote a famous work called ‘The Republic’.
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