Paolo Dabandan
Philosophy Essay 1
Allegory of the Cave was a conversation featured in Plato’s literary work, The Republic, between Socrates and Glaucon. The conversation encompasses the idea of illusion vs. reality and basically how things really aren’t as they appear to be. Socrates starts the conversation describing a cave where humans are kept as prisoners, tied down and held immobile since childhood. There, they are bound to face a certain direction. Behind them there is a fire that acts as an artificial light, and between the two is an extended walkway. However, the prisoners are only allowed to see the puppets created by the puppeteers, completely unaware that they are shadows. In the end of the cave there is also a small exit where the sun is visible. The idea of the cave symbolizes darkness and ignorance while the image of the sun represents enlightenment and knowledge.

To further clarify the idea of the allegory of the cave, you can imagine modern day art. Many artists and sculptors have become quite innovative these days. One artist who decided to use the idea of shadow sculptures is Shigeo Fukuda. With everyday items, scraps, light, and a creative mind, he has been able to create shadow images that look nothing as what they really are. It goes hand in hand with the idea of the cave. The prisoners are exposed to shadows not really knowing what it is that is creating them.
After Socrates asks Glaucon to imagine this situation, he adds another scenario where a prisoner is freed and released from the cave. The outcome of this scenario would probably be that the prisoner would be more likely to believe the shadows cast upon the blank wall than what it is that’s really producing them. Basically if someone were to show the prisoner the things that were really a casting the shadow, he wouldn’t know what they were nor would he be able to name them. He would not accept the fact that it is real. Socrates furthers the situation by adding onto the scenario. He states that if a prisoner were to forcibly be pulled out of the cave, it could cause him to be distressed and want to go back to facing the wall since it is something he holds to be real. However, Socrates believed that if the prisoner were to remain on the surface for a certain amount of time, he may be able to become accustomed to the climate and his surroundings.
Socrates then brings in the scenario the condition of the prisoner after he returns to the cave. He brings up the issue of whether or not he will be able to accept his old ways. Would he view himself as lucky and happy compared to the rest of the prisoners who have yet to see what

the reality of everything is? From what Socrates explains to Glaucon, it seems as if the returning prisoner is trying to free everyone and enlighten them about the other world beyond the cave.
Societies, just like the prisoners, have all fallen victim to masters of deception. Prisoners were deceived by the shadows casted by the puppeteers. They didn’t know the truth behind the images they saw. Many societies and/or countries have also been deceived by a higher authority, for example offering them something with strings attached. One example of how the cave relates to the real world is globalization and how more advanced and powerful countries control the flow of money and smaller countries. Globalization is the increase of economic activity, flow of information, goods, money, and people across national boundaries. Globalization has impacted the world economically and politically. Many countries that were formally distant with each other now trade products, services and ideas globally. Many cities have become larger and more powerful becoming global cities that dominate the economy.
With the start of globalization, multinational corporations started taking advantage of free trade and labor in other countries, just like how the puppeteers controlled the prisoners in the cave. Companies started moving factories to underdeveloped countries because they were able to produce things cheaper. One example of this is where companies such as Hanes created factories in areas in Jamaica known as free zones. This created many jobs for Jamaicans, but at a cost.
This situation is just like that in the cave. In the cave, the prisoners were bound to only face one direction and allowed to see and hear things that the puppeteers wanted them to see or hear. They knew nothing better, because they didn’t know much to begin with. The prisoners didn’t know about the world beyond the shadows cast upon the walls they stared at all day. Like the prisoners, the people of developing countries were prisoners who were bound to only one option.
They worked for below minimum wage for long hours, in poor working conditions. But, like the

people inside the cave, they didn’t know better. It was either they worked for little money, or just have no job at all. Workers would work in the free zones for little money and are charged taxes like educational tax and health care, even thought there taxes aren’t going anywhere and are not being used to help the workers. Other problems they faced were there wages would be given two or more weeks, late causing riots and without workers being able to form unions, workers were not able to do anything.
Another thing that promoted globalization was the International Monetary Funds, the
World Bank, and the World Trade Organization. The International Monetary Fund’s gave loans to national governments to help them in their times of need. Basically, these organizations offered these developing countries, with what seemed like a good deal. However, these offers always came with strings attached and on certain terms. For example, developing countries who would borrow loans from the IMF would have to have their loans have rules such as not raising minimum wage, dropping interest rates, cutting government services, and lowering trade tariffs.
This relates to how the Puppeteers trapped and chained the prisoners so they wouldn’t be able to leave the cave. Countries had an imaginary chain around them that limited their abilities, just like the prisoners. It limited their potential and didn’t allow countries to compete with other countries. These developing nations could not see their own potential because of the chains they were bound to by the bigger nations. They could not further develop due to the limitations being placed on them, but they were in no authoritative state to be able to stand up for themselves.
These developing countries are just like the prisoners because the prisoners didn’t know anything about the outside world. They were unaware of their own potential. They didn’t know that they were being deceived by the puppeteers and the images they saw. But they didn’t know enough to stand up on their own and leave the cave.

Some countries in the developing world are like the prisoners in the cave that are bound to one way of life. Although some may break free of the chains, some tend to go back just like the United States from British where the British controlled the US, having only to break free of the British rule. However in the end, the United States only ended up becoming a world power.
Or even like China, who was a developing country that ended up becoming a world power as well. It’s just like returning to the cave and either realizing you shouldn’t have left to begin with or that you made the better choice by leaving.