Читать книгу Philosophy For Dummies - Tom Morris - Страница 20

Plato had a memorable image for the false beliefs and illusions we too often suffer. He wrote that we are all like prisoners living in a cave, chained down to the floor, our gazes fixed on shadows flitting across a wall, mere images that we mistake for realities.

Plato’s image of the cave was actually quite elaborate, but here is the gist: Imagine that behind us in this cavern, there is a fire burning that casts shadows on the walls that are all we ever see, until the day someone breaks free of his chains, sees our situation as it truly is, and escapes the cave altogether, emerging into real daylight. At first, he is blinded by the glare of the sun, that object of which the cavern fire was but a poor copy. But then his eyes begin to adjust and can see real objects, animals, rocks, and trees. Realizing the difference between the outside world and the poor dim shadow world in which he had been imprisoned, he returns to the cave to convince the others there to break their chains as well and ascend into the light of reality. Philosophy is all about escaping from the cave of illusions where too many people are trapped.