| A | B |
|---|
| People | these are the people of the everyday life. they only have an experience of what is reality that is as far removed as possible from the everyday world, they think it is reality. Using evidence of their senses, they believe this is the only reality. |
| Fire | The empirical world that we see and hear around us. The fire does not produce good shadows, due to the flickering of the firelight. This is a copy of the forms of the good; allows us to see the shadows. |
| Cave | This is the empirical world that we see and hear around us. The cave conveys the sense of being trapped in a different world, away from light and reality. The cave emphasises that the prisoners have kept away from “real life” since childhood. They have never known anything different from their present situation. |
| chains | The chains are our senses that cause us to accept all that we see and hear. They are restrained to only look before them and so can only see the shadows, which they perceive to be reality. |
| Shadows | The shadows represent the illusions that we experience: our sense data. For them this is reality a projection of the real thing. They only see images of images and yet take them as face value. |
| Escapee | The escapee is the person who becomes the philosopher. Finding the first movements painful, dazzled by the bright light, can’t see anything properly. The first response to philosophical questioning is puzzlement. He realises that his perception of his former reality was not accurate, he even wishes to go back to his former “reality” as it seems more real than this. |
| Difficult Ascent | The difficult ascent is an illustration that the road to philosophical knowledge is hard. Due to his unclear and his unhappy interpretation of the world he is forced outside. And to experince the reality far from the one he was previously used too. |
| outside world | The outside world is the real world (the realm of the forms). Again when he first enters the outside reality he will be dazzled. The more his eyes get used to the world outside the cave, the more he is able to perceive. He is therefore able to see the real world, and draw conclusions from it, which are true. He will first see the shadows, hen the reflection then the real objects. |
| Sun | The sun is the form of the good, the highest form, it enables knowledge of the other forms. Due to this he will not be able to see anything of these new realities but steadily grasp the concept and its truth. |
| Return to Cave | The return to the cave is the philosophers duty to return and educate the others. |
| adjustment ot Darkness | The difficulty in adjusting to the darkness is meant to mean that once we have the knowledge it is difficult to adjust to the realm of opinions. When he finds himself suddenly in darkness after having adjusted to the light, his ability to see the shadows on the wall is worse than it was before his release. |
| Persecution by poeple in Cave | The persecution given by the other prisoners. Like Socrates, the philosopher will be ridiculed and mistreated. The people who are still chained up laugh at him. The journey up to the light was useless as it spoiled his ability to see clearly. They choice not to find the light for themselves. And just like Socrates if someone tries to come and set them free from their reality and bring them to the true reality, they will kill them. |
