Republic, Book VII (Allegory of the Cave)

E36439

philosophical allegory section of a philosophical dialogue

"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.

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All labels observed (5)

Label	Occurrences
Allegory of the Cave	6
Allegory of the Cave in Book VII	1
Book VII of the Republic	1
Plato's Republic	1
Republic, Book VII (Allegory of the Cave) canonical	1

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	Republic, Book VII (Allegory of the Cave) self-linksurface differs ⓘ surface form: 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	the Good (Form of the Good) ⓘ surface form: 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 ⓘ