- Imagine that. you are one of the prisoners in the cave. You cannot look at anything behind or to the side of you — you must look at the wall in front of you.
- When people walk along the walkway, you can see shadows of the objects they are carrying cast on the wall.
- If you had never seen a real object ever before, you would believe that the shadows of the objects were “real”
Note
The Shadows represent the perceptions of those who believe empirical evidence ensures knowledge. If you believe that what you see should be taken as truth, then you are merely seeing a shadow of the truth. In Plato’s opinion, you are a ‘pleb’ if you believe this (their insult to those who are not Philosophers)!