Plato: The Cave Analogy

The Cave analogy is a famous idea created by Plato, the student of Socrates, who became a philosopher after the death of his mentor. The Cave analogy basically tells a story of a person who has been forced to live in a cave since he was born. The cave walls have shadows playing all over them, because of the fire behind them that has figures in front of it in order to cast shadows. The person also has other people beside him. They have all been living there since they were born, and all they have ever seen is the cave walls in front of them. One day, one of the men releases himself from the chair that he is tied to, and explores the world outside of the cave and comes to a great realization of what the world really is. He comes back to tell his friends, and they refuse to believe him, and end up killing him for believing in such radical ideas. I believe that this analogy not only represents a philosopher's misson- to help people gain insight into the truth- and how they can persecuted for it, but it also represents Plato's mentor, Socrates. Socrates, in a way, released himself from the grasp of social norms, and decided to attempt to find out what the world really was. He was killed for doing so, just as the man in the cave was. He could also be talking about human beings being represented by the ignorant people in the cave. Because human beings do not know any better, and do not know for sure what could be out there, they represent the cave people. The philosopher, though, is unsatisfied with this, and is not exactly an ordinary person. This cave analogy is really interesting to me, because it makes me realize how little we truly know about the universe and the world. In the future, will we one day gain insight into something that we never knew could possibly exist? Will we change as a society because of it? Will we refuse to believe it, like the cave people?