School of Shadows: The Return to Plato's Cave

Abstract

School of Shadows: The Return to Plato’s Cave CLAIRE SOMMERS Picture men dwelling in a sort of subterranean cave,” (R., 514a).1 So begins one of the most iconic passages written: Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave,” from Book VII of Republic . While the story begins in the cave, it does not remain there for long. The prisoners’ goal is to escape to the surface, toward the light of the sun. Like the prisoner about to be freed, most interpretations of the allegory are loath to remain in the cave, preferring instead to concentrate on the journey to the surface. In the cave, shadows are dismissed as false and at best distorted appearances, nothing more. Once out of the cave, there is no further use for them. Yet, ending analysis of the allegory with the individual’s ascent stops the story in the middle. One of its more perplexing aspects is Plato’s insistence that, after the prisoner has struggled to cast off his chains and made the arduous sojourn toward the surface where he is finally able to gaze at the sun, he should not remain outside and bask in his newfound acclimation to the light. Frustratingly, the liberated prisoner is directed to re-enter the cave and descend into darkness in order to educate and eventually free those individuals who are still in chains. If the ultimate goal of an enlightened individual is not to remain on the surface, but to return to the darkness of the cave, then the shadows cannot be so readily disregarded. In fact, when read alongside his polemic against mimesis in Book X, Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” yields new insights into the transmission of knowledge and shows why traditional forms of education, such as poetry, are largely inadequate for philosophical discourse. Plato summarizes the scope of his “Allegory of the Cave” arion 25.3 winter 2018 saying he will “compare our nature in respect of education (paideias) and its lack” (R., 514a). As demonstrated through the structure of Plato’s works, this education may only be accomplished through dialogue, through the medium of language (logos). The pervasiveness of shadows throughout the allegory, coupled with Plato’s assertion that the freed individual must return to the cave serves to—pardon the pun— illuminate his conception of language. The philosopher conceives language as a form of imitation tied to the physical realm, and, as such, it cannot fully render the insensible Forms. Plato’s directive that the newly enlightened individual must return to the cave therefore represents the philosopher’s dependence on language in order to explain abstract ideas to those still trapped there. By aligning language with darkness and shadow, Plato is reminding his audience that true knowledge is the ability to recognize the inherent ambiguities of this logos and to interpret what is being said in spite of this uncertainty. Shadows are not to be escaped or avoided, but rather, they are an integral part of philosophical discourse and the knowledge that it hopes to uncover. Plato therefore must write in a style that accommodates and reflects these shadows, creating images (eikones) that express doubt and force interpretation. In characterizing the shadows as symbolic of language and a necessary aspect of enlightenment, the “Allegory of the Cave” informs Plato’s own methods of instruction and provides a guideline that illustrates how the stories he creates should be interpreted. Before delving too deeply into Plato’s conception of logos, it is necessary to comprehend the images of light and darkness that are present at each of the four stages of the allegory. The eikon opens with the image of prisoners chained and facing the side of a cave, perceiving shadows on the wall before them. The next step is the release of an individual from his chains, which results in his looking up toward the light and feeling, “pain . . . unable to discern the objects whose shadows (skias) he formerly saw”; his newfound freedom is painful as he first believes that the silhouettes cast by 132 school of shadows: the return to plato’s cave the objects on the cave wall are more real than the objects themselves (R., 515c–d). Once...