Born in the hearts of modern civilization in Greece. Plato is believed to be the father of Western philosophy. All of Western philosophy can be considered a footnote to Plato’s work according to a few writers. Plato’s work through his disciples like Socrates and Aristotle would change the course of Western philosophy for good.

Plato believed that in the idea of Forms, he believed that there exists a world beyond ours which consists of just perfection. Plato’s definition of philosophy was the study of this perfect world of forms to compare our behaviours and beliefs. The world of forms helps philosophers learn an instruction manual to use in our imperfect copies of those ideal worlds.

Plato’s understanding of an underlying difference between actual reality and perceived reality is undoubtedly a genius thought considering the time when he came up with these concepts. Plato along with Aristotle is believed to have laid the foundation of both political theory and Western philosophy.

Plato in his political works imagines an ideal city of forms where everyone is equally responsible for performing their duties for the state. Every individual is believed to have a responsibility towards the republic. This ideal city, according to Plato, was to be ruled by philosopher kings with an innate understanding of the ideal forms to rule and guide the impacted forms to perfection. He said that the philosopher king needs to come up with a noble lie to maintain harmony amongst the masses. This concept of philosopher kings was met with hostility in the democratic Greek empire. He was exiled by the Greeks and considered a menace to Greek society.

Plato's early life

Allegory of the Cave

The allegory of the cave describes the story of three prisoners chained across a fire in a cave, since their birth with no knowledge of the outside world. The fire casts light in a way that the prisoners can see reflections on the wall in front of them. Occasionally some objects pass through the cave and the prisoners can only see their reflections. The prisoners believe the reflection to be reality and they name the object’s reflection.

One day, a prisoner is freed from the chains, and he wanders to the world beyond the cave. He sees objects which he hasn’t seen before and gets confused. But on introspection, he concludes that the world outside the cave is clearer than his world due to the sun (strongest light source) thus it should be the real world. The prisoner gets overwhelmed by this discovery and wants his fellow prisoners to discover the world beyond the cave.

In book 7, in Plato’s Republic, the allegory of the cave is introduced which questions the state of reality. The allegory of the cave is one of the first of its kind concepts, which makes the readers question the very existence of reality and the number of realities that exist in society.

Upon his arrival at the cave, he is unable to adjust to the darkness and cannot see the reflections. He tells his fellow prisoners about the outside world. But, to his surprise, his fellow prisoners are hostile towards the world beyond the cave and fail to believe even in the existence of this perfect world with light. He attempts to free these men but fails to convince them to leave the cave with him.

The allegory’s question of the state of reality was the foundation of Plato’s philosophy. He believed that there are perfect versions of everything and everyone. These perfect versions exist beyond our world. A philosopher’s purpose is to wander to this perfect world to formulate a guideline for imperfect versions to reach their perfect version. But, Plato’s experiences in Greece because of his work made him believe that people are hostile to change. He believed that if man is scared of change, he will remain futile to all things challenging his core beliefs. Most men are happy living in the darkness of ignorance.

The allegory can be read in many ways, the interpretation of this concept depends on the outlook of the reader but the question of perfection being forced upon imperfection is not unknown to any reader. The allegory is a perfect example of Plato’s philosophy. Instead of providing concrete theories and concepts, most of Plato’s work is a thought experiment which forces the reader to question everything instead of just taking the world at its face value.