Plato's Cave: Prisoners in the Cave
Plato's Parable: The Prisoners in the Cave
In this story, prisoners are bound in a cave in such a way that they
cannot turn their heads or move about, but can only see a blank wall
in front of them, on which are cast shadows of themselves, and of
other people wandering about in the cave, by the light of a distant
fire behind them. Because the prisoners have been bound in this way
since birth, their only perception of themselves and their world is by
way of the mov ing shadows on the wall, which these prisoners
therefore take to be actual objects in the world, rather than mere
shadows of them.
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