Allegory of the Cave Socrates tells a story

Allegory of the Cave (洞穴)

• Socrates tells a story to his friend, Glaucon. • He says, “What if there were a cave…? ” • “In the cave are prisoners (囚犯) tied to a wall. ” • “In front of them they see pictures and they hear voices. ” • “They believe that this is real life. That the voices and pictures are real. ” • “But, these pictures are only shadows (阴影) from objects held by men above them. ” • “What if these prisoners left the cave? What would they see? ”

• “First they would see that the voices and pictures came from the men holding objects. ” • “Then, behind those men they would see a light. ” • “The light would be difficult to look at, since they lived their life in a cave. ” • “But, they would walk out to the light. ” • “Then, they would see more pictures, reflections (反射) of trees and rocks and the Sun in rivers. ” • “Finally, they would look up and see the true things, the trees and rocks and the Sun. ”

We will watch a clip from “The Matrix” If you want to continue the video at home, you will learn a lot about “The Cave” and the ideas of Plato’s (Socrates) philosophy.

Matrix - Cave • This is Neo. He is the main person in the Matrix movie. He escapes (逃避) the Cave. He finds the true world.

Matrix - Cave People in the world Prisoners • These people are Neo’s bosses and coworkers and friends. They are all prisoners in the cave. They live and think that their life is real, but really they are just sleeping in machines.

Matrix - Cave Mr. Smith (Police) Puppeteer (木偶人) • These guys do not people to wake up and be free. They built the Matrix, the fake world. They are the people who want to stop Neo, because Neo wants to leave the Matrix and enter the True World.

Matrix - Cave Real World of Forms • This is the True World. This is where real things are. Everything else is fake. This is where the person sees the real tree and rock and Sun.

Matrix - Cave • Neo escapes the Matrix, the Cave and he fights to free other people. • This is the Cave. This is what Plato thought. He believed that everything we see is not real. He believed that they are all reflections and shadows of the true things. He called these true things Forms.