A journey from ignorance to enlightenment in Plato’s timeless cave allegory.

[00:00.17]In the shadowy depths of a cave, a group of people have been chained since birth.
[00:05.50]Their ankles and necks are bound so they cannot turn their heads and must face a blank wall in front of them.
[00:11.57]Behind these prisoners burns a fire.
[00:14.68]Between the fire and the prisoners, people carry countless objects, figures of men and women, animals and plants.
[00:23.31]These objects cast shifting shadows onto the wall before the captives.
[00:27.70]The prisoners, never allowed to see anything else, come to know only the shapes and movements on the wall.
[00:34.88]To them, those shadows are the entirety of reality.
[00:38.91]They do not know there is a fire behind them or people moving with objects or the world outside the cave at all.
[00:46.41]The everyday sights and sounds of the cave are their whole universe, a universe made only of shadows, flickers and echoes.

In the shadowy depths of a cave, a group of people have been chained since birth. Their ankles and necks are bound so they cannot turn their heads and must face a blank wall in front of them. Behind these prisoners burns a fire. Between the fire and the prisoners, people carry countless objects; figures of men and women, animals, and plants. These objects cast shifting shadows onto the wall before the captives. The prisoners, never allowed to see anything else, come to know only the shapes and movements on the wall. To them, those shadows are the entirety of reality. They do not know there is a fire behind them, or people moving with objects, or the world outside the cave at all. The everyday sights and sounds of the cave are their whole universe, a universe made only of shadows, flickers, and echoes.

Plato’s Myth of the Cave

The Prisoners