PLATO’S ALLEGORY OF

THE CAVE AND ITS

RELEVANCE IN
CONTEMPRARY WORLD
Political Theory Project- Semester 2

Submitted By-
Jay Vardhan Sihag
BA L.L.B, 19A073
Introduction 

Plato (c. 427–348 B.C.E.) is actually the nickname of Aristocles, the son of one of the oldest
one of the elitist Athenian families. Plato’s father’s family traced its lineage to the ancient
kings of Athens and even to the God of the Sea, Posiedon. His name, Aristocles, meant “best,
most renowned.” He is said to have done well at practically everything as a young man.1

Born in circa 428 B.C.E., Plato a philosopher, from Greece, a student of Socrates and teacher
to Aristotle. His writings explored justice, beauty and equality, and also contained
discussions in aesthetics, political philosophy, theology, cosmology, epistemology and the
philosophy of language. Plato founded the Academy in Athens, one of the first institutions of
higher learning in the Western world. He died in Athens circa 348 B.C.2

In the Republic, Plato uses three different comparisons to help express various aspects of the
theory of Forms: The Divided Line, the Simile of the Sun, and the Allegory of the Cave.3

We will be focusing on the Allegory of the cave in this paper.

Media in modern days are often criticized by intellectuals or even university students for
biased reporting. Indeed, many television media and newspaper report current affairs from a
perspective that matches the ideals held in each company or based on each nations
perspective. How is this related to Plato’s philosophy? In his Allegory of the Cave, he talks
about seeing illusions as opposed reality.  It will also look at, political issues and freedom that
humans have, mostly through Plato example of The Allegory of the Cave.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave 

1
Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy
2
https://www.biography.com/scholar/plato
3
Archetypes of Wisdom: An Introduction to Philosophy
The parable [of the Cave] is unforgettable. It’s a miracle of philosophical invention,
providing an approach to thoughts that do not lend themselves to direct statement.

- KARL JASPERS

There were different challenges that were faced by the society in the days of Plato, mostly
related to the difference in levels of one individual with that of the other. These levels could
be anything, for example, education, qualifications, social status, etc. These created
differences among people and were distinguished as an average person and a say a wise
person or a so-called enlightened person.

The main question was, do these differences really exist? If they are present then what are the
indicators to term people into these categories or were, they just unprovable claims made by
people who thought they knew more than others?

Plato responded to this situation and challenge by explaining a lesson in the form of a story
(an allegory) in the book VII of the Republic.

In book 7 of the Republic, Plato explains that prisoners locked and captured in a cave right
from the beginning and are only shown shadows of images and are only allowed to listen to
the echoes of sounds, which they think are coming from the shadows on the walls of the cave.
Plato regarded these figures on these walls as imaginary and illusionary, something not
authentic. If the prisoner is freed, he will see the truth, which is in fact the reality, the reality
which has been hidden to them since the beginning. The prisoner, who has now come to
terms with the reality after breaking from his chains, both mental and physical, is called the
enlightened man by Plato, he also describes the same at the start of his book 7 as “let me
show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened”; however, the use of
word enlightened is not used after this. Plato then goes on to give the story of how the man
who sees the real world, although who has a difficult time believing that it is real at first, will
eventually realize and adjust his eyes to the truth, and will later be compelled to go back to
his prison cave and inform his other inmates that what they are seeing is a mere illusion.
Although the prisoner who went and saw the truth will try to convince others about what he
saw was real and that the cave and its shadows are not real, Plato argues that the other
prisoners who have only heard and seen the shadows on the walls will ignore any man and
his thinking who is trying to say otherwise. What Plato is trying to explain behind this is that
human beings are naturally inclined to their comfort zone and what they are used to do, they
are naturally inclined to what is comfortable for them to see and what they want to see and
more importantly what they want to believe, regardless of its authenticity. This phenomenon
or thought, stated over 2000 years ago, is still very much relevant in today’s contemporary
world and applies to contemporary issues.

The Shadows representing Media 

With today’s rise in modern technology in the digital era, it is easy to say that, at least for
developed countries like the US and Japan where freedom of speech is guaranteed, one is free
to find and access any information they desire. Although this concept of freedom to
information, is a bit one sided, because it is so easy to see information nowadays, it is highly
possible that we are able to see only a very limited, view of the world. Plato’s Allegory of the
Cave can be used here to focus on this discussion. Let’s visualise the cave wall where the
prisoners saw the shadows as a media screen (TV/Computer/Mobile) in today’s world. Once
we have the device in front of us, we see the world that is portrayed through in that media,
more importantly we see what is being showed to us through that.

To make it clearer, media like television have been around three decades, new categories of
social media like Facebook have only been prevalent since the last decade. Yet this social
media now controls many people’s lives, who are in one or the other prisoners locked in the
world of seeing images and posts online. This world that is displayed to us is, like the
shadows in the cave and not the actual world. The major difference, of course, with social
media and The Allegory of the Cave is that no one is fixed onto their seat, by that I mean that
their heads aren’t strapped in so that they can only look at the screen all day. Realistically
speaking, we all have the freedom to choose if we want to look at the impressions of the
modern world which is social media, or go outside and feel the real world, chose different
sources of entertainment, speak to people, etc . In truth, most of us do choose to use only a
moderate amount of time looking at those delusions on the screen. Despite the fact that we
have the freedom to see the real world daily, what we see on our media screen daily, still has
a major impact our thought process and consciousness even when we are not looking at those
illusions. This process appears to be similar to that of the prisoner not being able to adjust his
beliefs and his vision after he was freed from the cave, as he was affected by his habits of
only seeing shadows.

A modern example that can be derived from contemporary happenings around the world is
from countries such as China, where the media is censored, biased and restricted. Although it
can be said that a lot of foreign social media cited before don’t have a lot of restrictions but
they also are regulated and we can’t forget the fact that news media is heavily governed. The
government permits only specific things on national media, only what the government want
its population to see. Of course, with modern technology and globalization, it is not
completely impossible to get a hold of different information within countries who hide about
themselves and their activities, for example China and North Korea, but for the most part,
citizens in China and North Korea are prisoners to their country’s media. Maybe to an extent
people are, probably because their minds are hard to move, to look at things beside the
shadows in the cave, especially compared to other countries. In addition, when activists in
these countries try to fight against the government censorship, they’re dealt harshly,
sometimes even violent backlashed by the authorities, just like how the prisoners resisted in
the cave. Although many are fine with the censorship in countries like China, there are many,
especially the youth who defy the government’s restriction on their freedom. This discussion
does not signify that China or North Korea is any better or any worse than other nations with
different political systems.

Explaining the Social Media obsessed world

According to Allegory of the cave, prisoners talked about are being shown so accustomed to
their life in the cave that they cannot understand that the shadows on the wall are not real
objects but only reflections; this means they have an inaccurate image about the world and
their surroundings and build their thoughts and lives accordingly. They are prisoners, but are
not able to realize the same, hence they don’t struggle to free themselves. On top of this, they
are isolated from their fellow detainees, so each one lives in their own different illusion and
reality.

That sounds similar to contemporary issues as it’s been repeatedly suggested that
overexposure to social media inclines to affect people’s personality and character; everyone
pretends to be happy, energetic and full of ideas and experiences, yet everyone feels they’ve
been left behind and lead lives far less interesting and enjoyable than their “friends”, one can
also feel the term ‘FOMO’, or the ‘fear of missing out’. Like Plato’s captives, one fails to
recognize when something is real or an illusion, an image without any substance. As far as
politics and social issues are concerned, the boundaries between truth and lies also seem to
have blurred; fake news was the Collins’ word of the year 2017 for a reason. Added to this,
there are echo chambers; people when online are usually fed ideas and opinions they already
have without any proper discussion, criticism or scrutiny, and that simply emphasizes their
beliefs and dissociates them even further from their fellow men.

Overall, it can be said one can raise up the Allegory of the Cave when matters like the
misrepresentation of truth and isolation in the digital world are being talked.

From Allegory to Thought 

Let’s now discuss the thought of freedom, derived from Plato’s allegory. Perhaps The
Allegory was not entirely meant to be a question of freedom, we have so far claimed that
whether we only see illusions or we see the real world depends on the extent of freedom we
have. Freedom means “the state of being free”.  In most democratic countries, individual and
political freedom, both are assured.  But, the ability of freedom comes with the responsibility
to act upon it, the greater the power the greater the responsibility. The prisoner who was freed
and got the chance to see the real world now had freedom. When the prisoner got released, he
was also free to tell the others about the truth, but is this telling other of the real world now
the freeman’s responsibility? A few years ago, a guy named Julian Assange opened a page
called WikiLeaks and later on the same page, highly classified related to US Intelligence
were published. Another example is Edward Snowden, who did something similar by
exposing the amount of surveillance the government has on its citizens, he saw something
that was hidden to everyone and felt he had to expose this. They told the world secrets of the
United States government, which sparked debate all over the world. Aside the fact if actions
can be justified, Snowden acted on the ideologies of the freed prisoner, who merely felt the
responsibility as a free man who now knew the truth, to tell others. If he hadn’t spoken up
after knowing the truth, some would say he’s not acting upon the responsibility of the
freeman.
Although the case of Snowden is a different circumstance, a more relatable example can be
driven from politics. Democratic countries often have a very low voter turnout when it comes
to general elections, for example India, only 66.4% of the population voted in the 2014
general elections.4  which means that nearly 33% or one third of the population did not
exercise their responsibility as a citizen with free and equal political power. Since the current
party has come into power in 2014, there have been many reports by non-mainstream media
about India’s media censorship and their e-cell or cyber cell being highly active on social
media. This censorship, however, comes from moderation of the journalists and pressure on
media houses. So much so that India’s rank on the freedom of press is at 140 out of 180
nations.5 The media at least in democracies should have a noble responsibility of informing
its citizens of what is happening around them as truthfully as possible and it also has a duty to
keep an eye on politics by informing the voters. When the media isn’t able to complete its
duty, it is just like if the prisoner who was freed in the cave is not informing the other
prisoners of the truth. If the media only presents to the people certain aspects of the political
climate, only the things that the government wants its people to see and understand, that’ll be
similar to the shadows in the cave, which aren’t real but illusions.

Plato uses The Allegory of the Cave to argue that common citizens are too naïve and unaware
to govern themselves so instead, philosopher kings should govern. Although this view too, is
very harsh to apply to modern day politics, using this allegory, it enables the analysis that the
Government in power wants to raise its power by showing more shadows to the already
indifferent population. This way, it’s easier for political groups to put into practice more
debatable policies.

Conclusion 

The Allegory shows the condition of ignorance in which most humans are, chained by their
own boundaries to look at shadows passing on the wall and unable to rise from their confined
conditions to get out of the cave into brightness and truth. The everyday experiences of
humans, according to him, are illusionary, but only the philosopher is able to penetrate
through the illusion with thought and notice the true nature of humans.

4
https://eci.gov.in/files/file/3276-voter-turnout-highlights-of-lok-sabha-election-2014/
5
https://rsf.org/en/ranking
This paper attempted to look at the various contemporary issues faced in the contemporary
political climate using the allegory. Many people are satisfied with the current situation, but
aren’t aware of their lack of freedom, and thus more focused with their political atmosphere.
The prisoners in the cave are as the people of some countries, but they chose to sit in their
places and not change and are happy with their status quo. There is no correct answer as to
what is good or bad. We can say, that a society which has freedom and is not able to use it or
doesn’t use it, is the most dangerous and harmful one. Plato’s thoughts derived from over a
thousand years ago, showed human nature and his thoughts till date are very significant in
today’s age.