# Plato — The Allegory of the Cave

*From The Republic, Book VII*
*c. 380 BC*

**SOCRATES:** And now, I said, let me show you in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened.

Imagine human beings living in an underground cave, with an entrance open toward the light and extending along the whole length of the cave. They have been there since childhood, their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move and can look only straight ahead. The chains prevent them from turning their heads.

Above and behind them, at some distance, a fire is burning. Between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised path, and along this path there is a low wall, like the screen that puppet-show performers place before themselves, over which they display their puppets.

**GLAUCON:** I see.

**SOCRATES:** And do you see men passing along this wall, carrying all kinds of vessels, statues, and figures of animals made of wood, stone, and other materials, which appear above the wall? Some of them are speaking, while others remain silent.

**GLAUCON:** You have shown me a strange image, and strange prisoners.

**SOCRATES:** Like ourselves, I replied.

For these prisoners, unable to turn their heads, would see nothing but the shadows cast by the fire upon the wall directly in front of them. They would see their own shadows, and the shadows of one another, and the shadows of the objects being carried behind them.

**GLAUCON:** How could they see anything else if they were never allowed to move their heads?

**SOCRATES:** And of the objects being carried along the wall, they would see only the shadows?

**GLAUCON:** Yes.

**SOCRATES:** And if they were able to speak with one another, would they not suppose that they were giving names to the very things that were actually before them?

**GLAUCON:** They would.

**SOCRATES:** And suppose the prison had an echo coming from the opposite wall. Whenever one of the passers-by spoke, would they not imagine that the voice they heard came from the passing shadow?

**GLAUCON:** Certainly.

**SOCRATES:** Then, for them, the truth would be nothing more than the shadows of images.

**GLAUCON:** That must be so.

---

Now imagine what would naturally happen if one of these prisoners were released and cured of his error.

At first, when he was suddenly forced to stand, turn his head, walk, and look toward the light, he would suffer great pain. The brightness would distress him, and he would be unable to see clearly the things whose shadows he had previously seen.

Suppose someone told him that what he had seen before was an illusion, but that now, as he approached closer to reality and turned his eyes toward more real things, he was seeing more clearly. What would he say?

And imagine that his instructor pointed to the objects as they passed and required him to name them. Would he not be confused? Would he not think that the shadows he had formerly seen were more real and more truthful than the objects now being shown to him?

**GLAUCON:** Far more truthful, he would think.

**SOCRATES:** And if he were compelled to look directly at the light, would not his eyes hurt? Would he not turn away and seek refuge in the objects that he could see more easily, believing them to be clearer and more real than the things now being shown to him?

**GLAUCON:** Certainly.

**SOCRATES:** And suppose once more that he were dragged, reluctantly and against his will, up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he was brought into the presence of the sun itself. Would he not be distressed and angry?

As he approached the light, his eyes would be dazzled, and at first he would be unable to see anything at all of what we now call reality.

**GLAUCON:** Not all at once.

**SOCRATES:** No. He would first have to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world.

At first, he would see shadows most clearly. Then he would see the reflections of people and other objects in water. After that, he would be able to see the objects themselves.

Then he would look upon the light of the moon and the stars and the heavens at night. He would find it easier to look upon the sky and the stars by night than to look directly at the sun and its light by day.

**GLAUCON:** Certainly.

**SOCRATES:** And last of all, I suppose, he would be able to look upon the sun itself. Not merely its reflection in water, but the sun as it truly is, in its own place. He would contemplate it directly.

**GLAUCON:** Certainly.

**SOCRATES:** And then he would reason that it is the sun which gives us the seasons and the years, governs everything in the visible world, and is in some way the cause of all that he and his fellow prisoners had been accustomed to see.

**GLAUCON:** Clearly, he would first see the sun and then reason about it.

**SOCRATES:** And when he remembered his former dwelling, the wisdom of the cave, and his fellow prisoners, would he not congratulate himself upon the change and feel pity for them?

**GLAUCON:** Certainly.

**SOCRATES:** And if the prisoners were accustomed to honor among themselves those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows—to remember which came before, which followed, and which appeared together—and who were therefore best able to predict what would happen next, do you think that the man who had escaped would care about such honors?

Would he envy those who possessed them?

Would he not prefer, as Homer says, to endure anything rather than live as they did and hold the beliefs they held?

**GLAUCON:** He would rather suffer anything than live in that miserable way and hold such false beliefs.

---

**SOCRATES:** Imagine now that this same person suddenly returns from the sunlight to his former place in the cave.

Would he not find his eyes filled with darkness?

**GLAUCON:** Certainly.

**SOCRATES:** And if he were forced to compete with the prisoners who had never left the cave in judging the shadows, while his eyesight was still weak and before his eyes had become accustomed to the darkness—and if the process of adjustment took considerable time—would he not appear ridiculous?

The others would say that his journey upward had ruined his sight, and that it was better not even to think of ascending.

And if anyone attempted to free another prisoner and lead him toward the light, would they not seize the offender and, if they could, put him to death?

**GLAUCON:** There can be no doubt about it.

---

**SOCRATES:** This entire allegory, dear Glaucon, may now be connected with our earlier argument.

The prison-house corresponds to the world of sight, and the light of the fire within it corresponds to the power of the sun.

You will not misunderstand me if you interpret the journey upward as the ascent of the soul into the intelligible world.

Whether I am right or wrong, God knows. But this is how the matter appears to me.

In the world of knowledge, the idea of the Good is seen only with great effort, and only after the soul has gradually turned away from the shadows and toward what truly is.

Once it has seen the Good, however, it must understand that it is the universal source of all that is beautiful and just. It is the source of light and of the power of light in the visible world, and, in the intelligible world, the source of reason and truth.

And this is the reality upon which anyone who wishes to act rationally, whether in public or private life, must keep his eyes fixed.

**GLAUCON:** I agree, as far as I am able to understand you.

**SOCRATES:** Moreover, you should not be surprised that those who attain this blessed vision are unwilling to return to the affairs of ordinary human life.

Their souls are always eager to remain in the upper world, where they long to dwell. And this desire is entirely natural, if our allegory may be trusted.

**GLAUCON:** Yes, very natural.

**SOCRATES:** Nor is it surprising that someone who has passed from the contemplation of divine things back into the troubled condition of human life might behave awkwardly, even ridiculously.

Imagine that, while his eyes are still adjusting to the darkness, he is forced to argue in courts of law or elsewhere about images and shadows of justice, while trying to answer the opinions of people who have never seen justice itself.

**GLAUCON:** There would be nothing surprising about that.

**SOCRATES:** Anyone with common sense will remember that confusion of the eyes arises in two ways and from two opposite causes: either from coming out of the light or from entering into it.

The same is true of the mind's eye.

When someone appears confused and unable to see clearly, we should not be too quick to laugh. We should first ask whether his soul has come from a brighter light and is unable to see because it is unaccustomed to darkness, or whether it has turned from darkness toward the light of day and is dazzled by the excess of light.

We should consider the first person fortunate in his condition and state of being, and pity the second.

And if we choose to laugh at the soul that has come from below into the light, there would be more reason for doing so than in laughing at the soul that has returned from above, from the light, into the darkness of the cave.

**GLAUCON:** That is a very just distinction.

---

**SOCRATES:** But then, if I am right, certain teachers of education must be mistaken when they claim that they can put knowledge into a soul that did not possess it before, as though they could put sight into blind eyes.

**GLAUCON:** That is certainly what they claim.

**SOCRATES:** Whereas our argument shows that the power and capacity for learning already exist within the soul.

Just as the eye cannot be turned from darkness toward light without the movement of the whole body, so the instrument of knowledge can only be turned from the world of becoming toward the world of being through the movement of the whole soul.

Only in this way can the soul gradually learn to endure the sight of being, and of that which is brightest and best among beings—in other words, the Good.

**GLAUCON:** Very true.

**SOCRATES:** And must there not be some art that can bring about this conversion in the easiest and quickest way?

Not by implanting the faculty of sight, for that already exists, but by correcting its direction, since it has been turned the wrong way and is looking away from the truth.

**GLAUCON:** Yes, such an art must exist.

**SOCRATES:** And whereas the other so-called virtues of the soul seem to resemble bodily qualities—for even when they are not innate, they can later be acquired through habit and exercise—the faculty of wisdom contains, more than anything else, a divine element.

This element remains within us, and through the right conversion it can become useful and beneficial. If directed wrongly, however, it can become harmful and destructive.

Have you never observed the sharp intelligence flashing from the keen eyes of a clever rogue? How eager he is, how clearly his mind sees the path toward his goal.

He is certainly not blind. But his keen vision has been placed in the service of evil, and he becomes more harmful precisely because he is so clever.

**GLAUCON:** Very true.

**SOCRATES:** But suppose such natures had been trained from their youth to turn away from the pleasures that drag them downward—pleasures such as eating and drinking, which are like leaden weights attached to us from birth and which turn the vision of the soul toward the things below.

If they had been freed from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the very same faculty within them would have seen the truth as clearly as it now sees the things toward which it has been directed.

**GLAUCON:** Very likely.

---

**SOCRATES:** And there is another conclusion that follows naturally—or rather necessarily—from what has already been said.

Neither those who are uneducated and ignorant of the truth, nor those who never cease pursuing their education, will be capable of serving as proper guardians of the State.

The former cannot govern because they have no single aim or principle of duty to guide all their actions, public as well as private.

The latter will not govern because they will act only under compulsion, believing that they already dwell apart in the Isles of the Blessed.

**GLAUCON:** Very true.

**SOCRATES:** Then it will be the task of those of us who are founding the State to compel the best minds to attain the knowledge that we have already shown to be the greatest of all.

They must continue to ascend until they reach the Good.

But once they have ascended and seen enough, we must not allow them simply to remain there.

**GLAUCON:** What do you mean?

**SOCRATES:** I mean that they must descend again among the prisoners in the cave and share in their labors and honors, whether those honors are worth having or not.

**GLAUCON:** But is this not unjust? Should we force them to live a worse life when they could have a better one?

**SOCRATES:** You have forgotten again, my friend, the purpose of the lawgiver.

He did not seek to make one class in the State happy at the expense of all the others. His aim was the happiness of the whole State.

He bound the citizens together through persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State and therefore benefactors of one another.

He created them not simply to please themselves, but to serve the common good and to hold the State together.

**GLAUCON:** True. I had forgotten.

**SOCRATES:** Observe, Glaucon, that there will be no injustice in compelling our philosophers to care for others.

We shall explain to them that in other States men of their kind are not required to take part in political life. This is understandable, for they have grown up according to their own desires, while the government would rather not have them involved.

Since they have educated themselves, they cannot be expected to feel gratitude for an education that they never received from the State.

But we have brought you into the world to be rulers of the hive, kings of yourselves and of the other citizens. We have educated you far better and more completely than they have been educated, and therefore you are better able to share in both aspects of your duty.

So, when your turn comes, each of you must descend again into the common dwelling below and learn to see in the darkness.

Once you have become accustomed to it, you will see ten thousand times better than the inhabitants of the cave. You will understand what each image is and what it represents, because you have seen the beautiful, the just, and the good in their true nature.

Then our State, which is also yours, will become a reality rather than a dream.

It will be governed in a spirit very different from that of other States, where people fight with one another over shadows and struggle for power, believing power to be the greatest good.

The truth is that the State in which those who rule are most reluctant to govern is always the best and most peacefully governed, while the State in which rulers are most eager for power is the worst.

**GLAUCON:** Quite true.

**SOCRATES:** And when our pupils hear this, will they refuse to take their turn in the labors of the State, when they are allowed to spend most of their time with one another in the heavenly light?

**GLAUCON:** Impossible. They are just men, and the commands we impose upon them are just. There can be no doubt that each of them will accept public office as a necessary duty, and not in the manner of our present rulers.

**SOCRATES:** Yes, my friend, and there lies the essential point.

You must provide your future rulers with another and better life than that of political ambition. Then you may have a well-ordered State.

Only in such a State will those govern who are truly rich—not in silver and gold, but in virtue and wisdom, which are the true blessings of life.

But if they enter public life poor in virtue and hungry for their own private advantage, believing that they must seize the greatest good for themselves through political power, then there can never be order.

They will fight over office, and the civil and domestic conflicts that arise from such struggles will bring ruin upon the rulers themselves and upon the whole State.

**GLAUCON:** Most true.

**SOCRATES:** And the only life that looks down upon a life of political ambition is the life of true philosophy. Do you know of any other?

**GLAUCON:** Indeed, I do not.

**SOCRATES:** And those who govern ought not to be lovers of governing itself. For if they are, rival lovers will arise and they will fight with one another.

**GLAUCON:** No question.

**SOCRATES:** Who, then, shall we compel to become guardians?

Surely they must be those who are wisest in matters of State, those by whom the State will be best governed, and who at the same time possess other honors and a better life than that offered by political power.