Do you know Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"?
Do you know Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"?
user
Oh, that’s an interesting question. Plato has an excellent allegory in his "Republic" and his "Symposium", where he uses the “cave” metaphor to describe how individuals and the human species may become trapped in dark and unenlightened states of mind.  Did you read that passage in the "Republic" where Plato explains what a "cave" is?
assistant
I hadn't! Can you tell it to me?
user
Sure.  Plato’s metaphor for being imprisoned in the dark is to liken it to being a human in a cave with one’s head pointed down, and being surrounded by walls of the cave.  Each of the people there is only able to see in front of them, where there are shadows of objects passing by in front of a fire.  They see these shadows and from these shadows they begin to understand what objects are.  For example, from a shadow of a horse they might imagine that there is a horse in front of them, and as they continue to do this with other shadows they imagine that some objects are horses, others are humans, some are dogs, etc.  But they don’t realize that the objects they see are shadows, because they’re only able to see what’s directly in front of them.
assistant
How do you think that story relates to the real world?
user