Plato's Allegory of the Cave

  Plato, a student of Socrates and a philosopher, gained a great amount of inspiration from his teacher. After the death of Socrates, Plato founded the first school of philosophy and began writing, mostly using the dialogue of Socrates. One of his most famous works came from the seventh book of his masterpiece The Republic. In this piece Plato challenged the psyche and set out to compare the effect of education and the lack of education in society. In other words, he used the literal meaning of the shadows and darkness to imply the figurative meaning of ignorance, ego, and self-education.

The Allegory of the Cave set out to test the theory of truth, justice, and beauty. For me, it teaches me that you can not give such concepts one set definition. Beauty should not be defined only by society and its norms. Education is not merely contained in the classroom. Justice and truth do not just have one verdict. Nothing is really what you are told it is or only what you see. Instead, everything can have multiple meanings or interpretations without ever disturbing the original concept. In other words, experience is the best teacher. Never be afraid to experience things for yourself. Never be afraid to challenge someone's ideas. It may be the best thing you ever do for your psyche.

Like in Plato's writing, the people in the cave only knew of the shadows they saw. Those shadows, however, did not take away from the reality of the objects on the outside of the cave. The prisoner who was liberated was able to get a different look at things and see for himself that everything he thought was real, was merely a reflection of something even more tangible. When is the last time you challenged your mind to think deeper about reality? Give it a try today.