🏛 Plato·The Republic, Book VII·4th Century BCE
The Allegory of the Cave
Shadows, freedom, and the perilous duty of enlightenment
Original Copperplate Engraving · Atlas of Thinkers
SCENARIO & DILEMMA
Prisoners are chained from childhood deep in a subterranean cave, facing a blank wall. Behind them, puppeteers hold up statues before a fire, casting shadows on the wall. For the prisoners, these shadows are reality. One day, you break your shackles, crawl upward out of the cave, and step into the blinding sunlight of the real world. You see the true Sun and real forms.