Plato’s Cave Allegory: Understanding Reality

Posted on Mar 6, 2025 in Philosophy and ethics

Plato’s Dualism and the Allegory of the Cave

Sensible World (Inside the Cave)

  • Content: Physical objects and materials (shadows, reflections).
  • Driving force: The fire, which illuminates the world of sense and gives life (analogous to the sun).
  • Ontological category: A copy that mimics the idea, but is not authentic or real.
  • Spatial and temporal dimension: The sensible world occupies space and is subject to time; it changes and becomes.
  • Possibility of Change: Dynamism. This world is in perpetual change and modification (Heraclitus).
  • Condition: Corruptible and imperfect. Everything in this world deteriorates and has a finite and limited duration.
  • Anthropological correlate: The body, which is finite, corruptible, and mortal. This includes the concupiscible and irascible souls, which are mortal and linked to the body.
  • Source of knowledge: The senses. We perceive the world around us through imperfect senses.
  • Type of Knowledge: Private and contingent. Reports on specific objects and individuals: this flower, that horse (individual).
  • Epistemological correlate: Opinion (doxa). Knowledge is likely devoid of certainty, such as imagination (eikasía) and belief (pistis). Leads to error.
  • Ethical counterpart: Slavery, ignorance, and injustice as a result of submitting to the body and appearances. From this arise all evils.
  • Political correlate: Suppliers (farmers and artisans) and Guardians (soldiers). They guarantee the material welfare and physical safety of the polis.

Intelligible World (Outside the Cave)

  • Content: Ideas, archetypes, concepts (natural objects).
  • Driving force: The Idea of Good, which culminates in the hierarchy of ideas and gives it meaning (analogous to the Sun).
  • Ontological category: The model from which all copies arise and that which is authentic and real.
  • Dimension: Outside of space and time. The intelligible world has no location or time, and in that sense, is eternal and unchanging.
  • Possibility of Change: Statism. Ideas do not change; they are eternal and unchanging (Parmenides).
  • Condition: Incorruptible and perfect. In this world, nothing is born or dies; everything is already present in an absolute way.
  • Anthropological correlate: The rational soul. It preexists the body and will not disappear after death (Pythagoras). Its connection to the body is accidental because it belongs to the intelligible world.
  • Source of knowledge: Insight, thought. Through discursive reason and intuitive reason, we grasp (or rather, remember) Ideas.
  • Type of knowledge: Universal and necessary. It shows the essence of the Idea: Flower, Horse (genus or species).
  • Epistemological correlate: Science (episteme). It is true knowledge, wisdom granted by discursive reason (dianoia) and, above all, intuitive reason (dialectic). Leads to truth.
  • Ethical correlate: Freedom, wisdom, and justice, to fully know the Idea of Good (moral intellectualism, Socrates).
  • Political correlate: Government (philosopher-king). Despite having accessed the intelligible world, they must return to the sensible world to rule with justice, from the Idea of Good.