In these interesting times, the truth is difficult to discern. One news outlet says one thing and another says something different. Social media bombards us with opinionated echo chambers based on our most-watched videos. The fast pace of it all causes some of us to rely on headlines and memes for day-to-day truths.
But what is truth? One of truth’s earliest and most prominent investigators was Plato, who lived about 2,500 years ago. The Greek philosopher’s ideas about truth influenced much of Western culture.
British philosopher Alfred North Whitehead said this about Plato: “The safest general characterization of the European philosophical tradition is that it consists of a series of footnotes to Plato.” In other words, despite everything that has been written over the past 2,500 years, everyone has been elaborating on Plato’s thinking.
Plato’s magnum opus is “The Republic,” a work about justice and its role in formulating the ideal state. It’s here that we find one of his most influential concepts: the allegory of the cave.
Truth in Plato’s Cave
In Book 7 of “The Republic,” Plato asks us to imagine an underground cave where people are kept prisoners. These prisoners, however, don’t know that they are prisoners because they’ve been in this circumstance for as long as they can remember. Chains keep their heads looking at the cave wall in front of them, where they watch a play of shadows.Where are the shadows coming from? The shadows are cast from a fire behind the prisoners. These shadows are all the prisoners know. Thus, Plato tells us: “All in all, then, what the prisoners would take for true reality is nothing other than the shadows.”
Plato then asks what would happen if one of the prisoners were freed and was able to see the happenings behind them. This would be enough to shatter his worldview and initially confuse him. Even the light of the fire would be too bright, and the freed prisoner would need time for his eyes to adjust. Plato associates the fire with the sun, which illuminates the truth of our visible world.
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Up until this point, the prisoner is still inside the cave. To get closer to the truth, he must leave the cave, where he will witness a deeper truth: the sun and all it illuminates. The sun’s brilliance makes the fire inside the cave seem like a shadow. For Plato, this realm outside of the cave is the realm of inner, intellectual truth.
Jan Saenredam’s Interpretation
The Dutch artist Jan Saenredam (1565–1607) offers us a visual interpretation of Plato’s allegorical cave, adjusting some of the content for the sake of his composition. On the bottom right side of the composition, we see a large group of people in the shadows behind the wall. He doesn’t depict them shackled, but they are tightly packed together as if they are unaware that there are other places they can move.
“Plato’s Cave,” 1604, by Jan Saenredam. Engraving, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Public Domain
What keeps them there in that uncomfortable position? The ledge behind them holds a collection of statues that cast shadows on the wall. Most of the figures are deeply engaged with the shadows, pointing at them and discussing them. Their interest keeps them isolated in this suffocating spot.
A couple of figures at the bottom center of the composition attract the attention of some of the people in the shadows. These figures are partially illuminated by the hanging torch behind them, suggesting that they have already been exposed to the truth this flame represents and are trying to inform the people in the shadows.
Behind the statue ledge, a smaller number of figures look up at the fire and also engage in discussion. These figures, exposed to the torch, have a higher contrast than those who aren’t exposed. The higher contrast, however, suggests that these figures are still partially in the shadows, that is, partially ignorant of the truth.
Going further back to the upper left, through the exit of the cave, we can see three figures. Light comes from all directions and surrounds these figures, and the brightness of this light results in lower contrast, suggesting that these figures are closer to the truth—as there is more light. One of the figures, however, points upward, suggesting that there’s still more truth to witness.
In Search of Truth
To me, what’s interesting about the allegory is that Plato’s search for truth requires a backward movement out of the cave. If the figures in the cave’s shadows stand up, move forward to get close to the shadows on the wall, and study them intensely, they never move forward or make progress: the wall in front of them will always stop them.Plato says: “The realm revealed through sight should be likened to the prison dwelling. ... And if you think of the ... seeing of things above as the upward journey of the soul to the intelligible realm, you won’t mistake my intention.”
A detail of “Plato’s Cave,” in 1604 by Jan Saenredam. Engraving, National Gallery of Art, Washington. Public Domain
Ironically, progress occurs when the figures move back from the wall and its shadows, back from the fire that casts them, back until they exit the cave, and then above, back from the world.
Since Plato proposes two types of truth here, a visual truth and an intellectual one, we can also presume this backward movement to be from the outer world to the inner world, a journey few are willing to take.
How can this movement backward help us as we seek to reach within and search for truth? What does moving backward in the search to find truth say about the nature of truth?
Have you ever seen a work of art and thought it was beautiful but had no idea what it meant? In our series “Reaching Within: What Traditional Art Offers the Heart,” we interpret the classical visual arts in ways that may be morally insightful for us today. We try to approach each work of art to see how our historical creations might inspire within us our own innate goodness.
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