DE Weekly: Socrates, the Good, & the Allegory of the Cave
Below is an archived email originally sent on March 24, 2025.
Socrates, the Good, & the Allegory of the Cave
There are ideas and writings which are not explicitly existentialist in their nature, but to which, nevertheless, we can apply an existentialist critique. One such work is Plato’s The Republic.
The Republic is Plato’s most famous work. Written around 375 BC, it’s a Socratic dialogue in which Socrates is the main character, and discusses with his contemporaries such topics as justice, the order of city-states, and what constitutes a just man.
In this dialogue is a short allegory known as the “Allegory of the Cave”. If you’ve ever taken a philosophy class, you’ve likely encountered this story. If not, here’s a link to it so you can read it (it’s very short––you can finish it in ten minutes).
In the allegory of the cave, Socrates illustrates Platonic idealism through story to Plato’s brother Glaukon. The story goes as follows…
Imagine there are people living in a cave deep underground. The cave has a mouth open to the light shining from above.
These people have existed here since infancy. Their legs and necks are chained up, and they cannot move nor even turn their heads––they can only look straight ahead at the cave wall in front of them.
Behind them is a large fire and a suspended path where people can walk carrying things, bringing animals, choosing to talk or not. The actions of these people are reflected in the fire and play out on the cave wall for the captives to see.
To these chained captives, this is reality.
“What do you think his reaction would be”, questions Socrates, “if someone informed him that everything he had formerly known was illusion and delusion, but that now he was a few steps closer to reality, oriented now toward things that were more authentic, and able to see more truly?”
A prescient question, indeed.
In Socrates’s scenario, one of the captives is freed (or breaks free) of his chains and ascends out of the cave to see the world around him. He sees other people, animals, the lush landscape, and the sun.
Socrates continues, “You won’t misunderstand me if you connect the captive’s ascent to be the ascent of the soul to the intelligible world (τὸν νοητὸν τόπον).”
Herein lies the premise of the allegory Socrates was attempting to explain to Glaukon.
When we break free from an understanding of the world only to find ourselves viewing the world in an entirely different and unfamiliar way, we have begun our ascent to the intelligible world.
When we continue down this path of questioning our surroundings and the way we understand things, we can begin to have a truer understanding of things.
Through an existentialist lens, when we orient ourselves properly in the world as individuals, we can begin to search for meaning in it.
The key points of the allegory I imagine the existentialists would highlight are the human condition (being trapped in illusion and struggling to break free), and the condemnation of freedom––with the sheer responsibility that comes with it.
See, Socrates understood that once a captive breaks free from the cave, he won’t be satisfied returning to it. Once he realizes there is a greater truth than the one playing out on the cave wall, he can’t return, because it would seem ridiculous and inauthentic.
He might even have trouble explaining to the remaining captives their plight, and that there is something more for them out there.
This is the existentialist burden of freedom. The total freedom and responsibility to make our own choices and search for meaning in our own lives comes with hardships––other people might not understand us nor might they agree with our choices.
In this instance, the remaining captives represent The Other; other people can affect the way we see and live in the world, and there might be nothing we can do to change the way they see it.
Besides, Socrates goes on to say, it’s a hell of a lot easier sometimes to willingly stay chained up watching the shadows on the wall. Why leave anyway? It’s hard and scary out there and I don’t know what lies beyond the cavern mouth.
“The idea of the Good is discovered last of all,” Socrates proclaims, “and it is only perceived with great difficulty. But, when it is seen, it leads us directly to the finding that is the universal cause of all that is right and beautiful.”
Socrates compared the Good to the truth, and argued that while it is difficult to ascend there, we must try.
Plato used the sun as an embodiment of the Good; the sun shines over the whole world illuminating what we can see, touch, feel, and understand.
Allow me to proffer an alternative for the Good: meaning.
We are, all of us, born into a world without pre-determined meaning or purpose, and it’s through our choices and actions that we can create the essence of who we are in the world.
We are individuals free to choose whether to remain in the cave, shackled and blissfully unaware of what else is out there. Or, we could choose to break free and seek the truth––even if it is painful.
Once we do, we can begin our ascent, as Socrates advised, to the Good––to meaning––so that we might perceive a newfound purpose and confront it headstrong.
To find meaning in our own lives, I do believe, we must unshackle ourselves and breach the cavern mouth, for meaning is not given to us waiting in the shadows.
When we seek a deeper meaning, we attempt an ascent to the Good. This is the Good Socrates explained 2,400 years ago; that is to say, the truth.
Meaning, as it relates to our lives, might be the truest sense of the Good we can hope to achieve.
“Socrates: What our message now signifies is that the ability and means of learning is already present in the soul. As the eye could not turn from darkness to light unless the whole body moved, so it is that the mind can only turn around from the world of becoming to that of Being by a movement of the whole soul. The soul must learn, by degrees, to endure the contemplation of Being and the luminous realms. This is the Good, agreed?
Glaukon: Agreed.”
Thanks for reading.
Sincerely,
Brandon J. Seltenrich
P.S.––
I’ve written a lot about death recently. I hope this edition was a nice reprieve from such material. It certainly was for me.
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