In Plato's allegory of the cave, people sit in front of a wall on which the shadows of real objects in the world can be seen. As they have only seen the shadows in their entire lives, they think that these are reality. The philosopher's task is to explain to people that they should turn around to see how the apparatus of light, which serves as a projection mechanism, creates an illusion. Once people realized this, they would free themselves from the chains that kept them trapped in the cave and determined their line of sight. They would leave the cave and enter the real world. Plato thought that we are all trapped in this cave and that only very few manage to leave it.
The questions
This image is so complex that it has been thought-provoking for almost 2500 years. We cannot seriously refute this image, nor can we easily leave the metaphorical cave. We are virtually trapped in this image. I have used and analyzed this image in my seminars for many years. The analogy to the cinema is particularly striking and invites us to interpret the flame as a media projection apparatus. From here, it is easy to think about our media. What function do they have, what do they do to us? Do they liberate us, or do they keep us stuck in a consumerist mindset? What are the conditions of the apparatus that creates these illusions? What might the world outside the cave look like? If all the objects around us are only shadows of reality, in what dimension does reality lie? What is it made of? If everything we perceive is only the shadows, does this also apply to our theories, our science and art?
The answers
In what kind of 'view of being' can we grasp reality? The millennia have produced various answers: skepticism (we cannot know anything), idealism (reality is ultimately rational and only in our thoughts), phenomenology (the only thing we can really describe is our consciousness), structuralism (the relation of things to each other, i.e. the structure of the world, is the only thing we can know). Alongside this tendentially materialistic tradition of thought, we have Leibniz's monads (I am my world and other worlds are also self-contained, but they can mirror each other), Spinoza (the world is pure immanence, everything is from one reality and this is anchored in God). And of course the Christian tradition (a creator made all this, his ways are unfathomable).
What do we learn from this?
Of course I don't know either, but from the perspective of spirituality the question may be different. Perhaps we are actually trapped in Plato's image, and perhaps the image itself is not correct? Reality and illusion, true and false - perhaps these are categories of our thinking that represent a mere transitory stage. Perhaps our consciousness is not yet ready for the real question. Isn't it unlikely that the mind, let's say in the 21st century, has reached its evolutionary peak, even on a cosmic level? It seems unlikely to me. It is more likely that thinking is evolving, our consciousness is expanding, our perception and its apparative amplification are becoming more refined. Any philosopher who thinks he or she can free humanity from its chains should first and foremost free themselves from their own hubris. To me, that seems arrogant and presumptuous, know-it-all and contemptuous.
But perhaps Plato's allegory of the cave is just a tool, a key to make us think. If this is the task of the philosopher, then Plato has solved it masterfully.
