The Myth of the Epistemic Hero and the Appeal of Getting it Wrong Together (Rachel Robison-Greene, 6/23/25, 3Quarks)
In book VII of Plato’s Republic, he provides one of his most famous allegories. Socrates, Plato’s teacher and central participant in the dialogue, tells the story that has come to be known as “The Allegory of the Cave.” He first describes a group of prisoners chained up in a cave. They are positioned in such a way that they cannot move their heads, and they can see only what is right in front of them. Their discussions with one another concern only what they are able to apprehend from this limited vantage point. They see shadows cast on the wall in front of them and come to believe that all of reality is contained in what they can observe.
Socrates then asks those with whom he is conversing to imagine that one of the prisoners is released from his chains and allowed to ascend to a higher position in the cave. This would be disconcerting to the released prisoner at first. Socrates says, “he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him.” Nevertheless, once he becomes accustomed to the brighter part of the cave, he will be unable to see things in the way he once did. He will no longer see shadows; he will now see the source of those shadows—the puppets that were casting the shadows on the walls.
There is still more to reality than the puppets casting the shadows. Socrates portrays the liberated man as at least somewhat unwilling to move to the next stage. He says, “he is reluctantly dragged to a steep and rugged ascent and held fast until he is forced into the presence of the sun himself. Is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled and he will not be able to see anything at all of what he now calls realities.” From this new perspective, the man sees not shadows, or puppets, but the truth of reality itself.
At this point, Socrates emphasizes the intrinsic value of knowledge. Though the prisoner was reluctant at first, once he sees things in the light of the sun, he would never want to return to the state he was in before. He would never trade true beliefs for falsehoods, even pleasant falsehoods. He would rather live a solitary life knowing all that he knows than have honors conferred on him by his former fellows for assenting to the truth of all they took themselves to know before.
In his Meditations on First Philosophy, René Descartes describes a similar solitary journey.
…is the recognition that no one escapes: gnosticism is deluisional.