Republic, Book VII (Allegory of the Cave)
E36439
"Republic, Book VII (Allegory of the Cave)" is the famous section of Plato’s Republic that uses the image of prisoners in a cave to illustrate the philosopher’s ascent from ignorance to knowledge of the Forms and the Good.
Aliases (3)
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
philosophical allegory
→
section of a philosophical dialogue → |
| author |
Plato
→
|
| centralImage |
fire behind the prisoners
→
objects carried along a parapet → prisoners chained in an underground cave → shadows cast on a cave wall → the ascent out of the cave → the sun outside the cave → |
| dateWritten |
4th century BCE
→
|
| depicts |
a prisoner being freed
→
prisoners mistaking shadows for real things → the freed prisoner's painful adjustment to the light → the freed prisoner's return to the cave → the freed prisoner's vision of the sun → |
| featuresCharacter |
Glaucon
→
Socrates → |
| hasInfluenced |
Western philosophy
→
education theory → film and visual arts → literature → political theory → |
| historicalPeriod |
Classical Greek philosophy
→
|
| illustrates |
Plato's theory of Forms
→
knowledge of the Form of the Good → the ascent of the soul from ignorance to knowledge → the difficulty of enlightenment → the distinction between appearance and reality → the philosopher's education → the resistance of the many to philosophical truth → |
| language |
Ancient Greek
→
|
| locatedInWork |
Book VII of the Republic
→
|
| partOf |
Plato's Republic
→
|
| philosophicalTheme |
epistemology
→
metaphysics → philosophy of education → political philosophy → the nature of knowledge → the nature of reality → the role of the philosopher in the city → |
| relatedConcept |
Form of the Good
→
divided line analogy → philosopher-kings → |
| symbolizes |
the ascent as philosophical education
→
the cave as the visible world → the freed prisoner as the philosopher → the prisoners as ordinary citizens → the shadows as sensory appearances → the sun as the Form of the Good → |
Referenced by (6)
| Subject (surface form when different) | Predicate |
|---|---|
|
Republic
("Allegory of the Cave")
→
|
containsAllegory |
|
Form of the Good
("Allegory of the Cave")
→
|
explainedUsing |
|
Plato
("Allegory of the Cave")
→
|
knownFor |
|
Republic, Book VII (Allegory of the Cave)
("Book VII of the Republic")
→
|
locatedInWork |
|
Plato
→
|
notableWork |
|
Plato's Symposium
("Plato's Republic")
→
|
relatedWorkByAuthor |