Hunger is Shadow
Plato's Allegory of the Cave in plain words
Most explanations of the allegory of the cave focus on higher education when that isn’t what Socrates was trying to explain.
Usually these explanations skim the surface of the allegory where someone breaks free of their chains and sees the light of truth after living in shadows their entire life. These surface-level explanations almost never touch on the shadows inside the cave. If they do, they typically talk about the shadows like they’re shadows of physical objects.
Many say that the allegory represents the journey of education toward knowledge and away from ignorance. Others say its about people who manipulate us from afar by controlling the shadows. A few even have the belief that the people inside the cave must be idiots and that only the chosen few are able to free themselves to see anything other than shadows. But few dive deep into a discussion about the shadows themselves.
For many it seems the shadows are a lesser part of the allegory but I think it’s the core foundation of it. The prisoners inside the cave love the shadows. They have an intimate relationship with the shadows. They study the shadows and hold contests regarding the shadows. The shadows captivate them entirely to the point that they are hostile to anyone telling them that their beloved shadows aren’t real. The prisoners would kill for their shadows.
What about the shadows could captivate literal prisoners forced to look at them? These shadows seem pretty important to me so I’ve thought on it, read about it, and reflected through it. What I’ve found isn’t original but I wanted to restate it in plain words.
The Allegory Itself
I don’t want to bloat this article by poorly restating the allegory, so I’m asking you, dear reader, to be familiar with the it. If you aren’t already, you can read a PDF of it here. This translation is extremely readable but it only translates the allegory itself with a few extra paragraphs.
I will be using the Hackett Plato Collection for quotations and paragraph citations.
What Does the Allegory Represent?
Socrates attempts to explain the shadows through an illustration of a cave of prisoners who are forced to watch shadows. The first question we should be asking is, who do the prisoners represent? Socrates gives us a clue after he first describes the cave. He says the prisoners “... are like us.” [515a]
So the prisoners are just like us but what about the rest of the allegory? What does the cave, the fire, and the ascent to the surface represent? Like Glaucon, we need another hint.
After completing the the allegory, Socrates explains to Glaucon that the allegory “... must be fitted together with what we said before. The visible realm should be likened to the prison dwelling, and the light of the fire inside it to the power of the sun.” [517b]
Socrates is saying that the fire inside the cave, the prison dwelling, is like the sun. He also says that the cave itself is like the visible realm. For Plato, the visible realm is all that we can see, hear, touch, etc. with our body.
If the sun itself is the fire which is used to cast shadows and the cave itself is the visible realm, isn’t Socrates describing our time here on Earth? In other words, Socrates is saying that all we know, see, and hear is shadow cast from our wonderful sun in the sky.
But what about the ascent to see the sun outside the cave? If the sun is represented by the fire inside the cave, what does the sun outside the cave represent? Socrates continues, “... if you interpret the upward journey and the study of things above as the upward journey of the soul to the intelligible realm, you’ll grasp what I hope to convey.” [517b]
Socrates could be saying this: The people chained inside the cave represent humanity. All we know, see, and hear is shadow. The only way to see past the shadow is to break our chains and journey up to the surface to see the true light itself without shadow. The true light itself is the study of the intelligibles which, to Plato, are things we can think about but not see, like numbers.
The above is the common reading of the allegory. I’d wager most who are compelled to read the allegory can come to this reading of it. This reading isn’t wrong, it just lacks depth. Unfortunately, most explanations stop here with only a surface-level understanding of the shadows and thus make the allegory a shadow of itself.
Yes, the students say, I must stop seeing shadows of ignorance by gaining more knowledge through education. Yes, the pious say, I must stop looking down at the shadows of Earth and instead look up towards the light of God. Yes, the philosophers say, I must stop looking at the shadow of a thing itself and find the form of it instead.
But this isn’t quite what Socrates was trying to convey. Let’s continue to unravel the allegory by looking at the shadows.
The Shadows Themselves
Socrates tells us explicitly that the shadows aren’t simple shadows from puppets, like the shadow of a bird or tree in the sun. He says that someone who ventures back into the cave after an ascent to the surface may be “ ... compelled, either in the courts or elsewhere, to contend about the shadows of justice or the statues of which they are shadows.” [517d]
The mention of courts, statues, and the shadows of justice reinforces the fact the cave represents our society here on Earth. While the shadow of justice is important because Socrates starts his dialogue on the Republic only after arguing with Thrasymachus about justice, I want to avoid lofty interpretations of truth, justice, beauty, and other mystifying pure forms.
I want to avoid discussing the unshadowed forms to focus on the shadows that captivates us. Thanks to Socrates’ explicit acknowledgement of the shadows of justice we understand that the shadows represent more than puppets. But we haven’t touched yet on why the shadows are captivating. And we haven’t explained why the prisoners, who represent regular people, are chained and forced to look at the shadows.
If the prisoners represent ourselves -- well, I know I’m not chained, so what do the chains represent?
Prisoners in Chains
Let’s look at one of the most common motifs in the allegory: up and down. The cave, despite many artistic renditions of it, is beneath the ground with its opening at the top.
The lowest point in the cave is where the prisoners, who’ve “... been there since childhood,” [514a] are chained. The fire which casts the shadows is “... far above and behind [the prisoners].” [514a] And the exit to the surface is “.. a long way up.” [514a] The prisoners must travel upwards to first see the flame and further upwards to see the light of truth. People who have seen the light travel downwards back into the darkness.
Of the people who have made the ascent up to see truth itself, Socrates says, “... it isn’t surprising that the ones who get to this point are unwilling to occupy themselves with human affairs and that their souls are always pressing upwards.” [517c]. If by pressing upwards they are getting further from human affairs then human affairs must necessarily be downward.
Socrates questions us next: “... what happens when someone turns from divine study to the evils of human life?” [517d] Well, what are those evils of human life which must be downwards? Later, when discussing evil natures, Socrates tells us directly. He says, “... if a nature of this sort had been hammered at from childhood and freed from the bonds ... which have been fastened to it by feasting, greed, and other such pleasures and which, like leaden weights, pull its vision downwards ...” [519a]
Socrates makes the argument that by hammering from childhood at these bonds, our chains, we can free ourselves of our downward vision so we can finally look up to see the truth. By freeing ourselves of “feasting, greed, and other such pleasures” we can stop forcing ourselves to look at the shadows.
It is tempting to discuss the seven deadly sins here but I want to avoid that too. I know for a fact that wrath can create shadows of justice, gluttony can create shadows of health, lust can create shadows of love, and greed can create shadows of wealth, but I want to discuss something a little more interesting.
What’s the root of all human affairs if not the human body itself? What if the prisoners’ own bodies tempted them to look at shadows?
The Body of Education
Socrates introduces the allegory saying, “... compare the effect of education and the lack of it on our nature to an experience like this.” [514a] But the word “education” here shouldn’t invoke images of books, studying, and exams. Socrates says, “... Education isn’t what some people declare it to be, namely, putting knowledge into souls that lack it.” [518b]
He continues saying, “... the power to learn is present in everyone’s soul and that the instrument with which each learns is like an eye that cannot be turned around from darkness to light without turning the whole body.” [518c]
How do we turn the whole body? Socrates says it’s by education. This is the definition of education Socrates is trying to get us to understand. He says, “... education is the craft concerned with this very thing, this turning around ... Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn’t turned the right way.” [518d]
This sight Socrates calls the virtue of reason. He says, “... the virtue of reason seems to belong above all to something more diviine, and never loses its power but is either ... beneficial or ... harmful, depending on the way it is turned.” [518e]
This virtue of reason is greater than the other virtues of the soul. Socrates says, “... it looks as though the other so-called virtues of the soul are akin to those of the body, for they really aren’t there beforehand but are added later by habit and practice.” [518d] The other virtues of the soul are “wise, courageous, moderate, and just” [427e] and come via the body itself when its virtue of reason is turned correctly.
Socrates seems to be saying this: Our bodies themselves require us to cultivate virtues because without these virtues our vision would be forced downwards by the vices and other pleasures of the body. The ability to cultivate these virtues is capable for everyone because everyone has the virtue of reason even if this ability to reason is being used incorrectly. Education isn’t putting knowledge into people’s minds, it’s teaching people how to use their reason correctly so they stop seeing shadows. By training these bodily virtues from childhood we can break the chains of the body that force us to look downwards at shadows.
Isn’t this an astonishingly different reading of the allegory than the common one we surmised above? And we still aren’t done illustrating it completely.
We’ve found who the prisoners represent: ourselves. We’ve found what the shadows represent: everything we know, see, and hear. We’ve also found what the chains represent: the pleasures of our bodies. But the chains force the prisoners to look at the shadows and we haven’t seen the source of this force. And we’ve only just touched on why we are captivated by the shadows too.
Forced to Look
Another common motif in the allegory and the discussion afterward is “looking” or “seeing”. The prisoners are forced to look at shadows. There is the eye of reason that must be turned so it can see the brilliant light. After the ascent out of the cave one can see the truth without shadow. When going back down into the cave one’s sight is dimmed because of the darkness.
Socrates explicitly mentions eyes in his discussion because this is the bodily organ for sight. But this isn’t the only way of seeing with the body. One can feel, smell, taste, and hear with the body as well. The senses are just different ways of looking and seeing with the body.
Now, what forces the body to see? We know that the prisoners represent us and that the cave is our life here on Earth. Well, isn’t our very existence a certain force? I’m alive and thus I am subjected to experience itself. This experience is through the only instrument I have: my body with its senses. But let’s back down from this lofty concept and consider something that everyone should know: hunger.
Doesn’t your body force you to acknowledge hunger? The stomach has its pangs and sends signals up to your brain that says, feed me. This bodily phenomena forces itself on us. We have to feel pain, we have to feel lust, we have to feel emotion, and we have to feel hunger.
We are forced to look because our bodies compel us to look by their very nature. When we have an itch we must scratch it because it’s hard to ignore. Likewise, when we are hungry we have to eat because it’s hard to ignore. But ignoring it is possible. You can ignore that itch and you can ignore being hungry. There’s no name for the practice of ignoring an itch -- maybe it can be called meditation -- but ignoring hunger is called fasting and this has been a spiritual practice for thousands of years.
The Creation of Shadow
The body forces us to look and it’s this force which ultimately creates shadows. Let’s look at hunger again.
When we have stomach pangs we feel a certain way about it. We can literally feel hunger and are forced to acknowledge it. The stomach pangs don’t necessarily feel good and there’s a lot of bodily chemistry that takes place during hunger which can make people feel bad. The thoughts become irritable, fatigue sets in, and so on.
When we’re hungry, can’t our thoughts spiral a bit about food? Don’t we imagine a big, giant meal? Maybe we imagine a juicy burger with a ton of fries. Or we could imagine a big bowl of pasta with too much cheese. We might even start thinking about dessert afterwards when we wouldn’t be hungry anymore. Our very hunger causes our thoughts to exaggerate. But it doesn’t end with our thoughts, we often manifest them into reality. Surely after being hungry you’ve cooked too much food or ordered more than you could eat. The very sight of hunger caused this.
This is the shadow of hunger. Instead of thinking about satiating the hunger with a bowl of rice or some steamed vegetables, the pleasure of eating something juicy pulls our thoughts downwards towards “feasting.” But let’s step back one more time and consider shadows in a different way.
Imagine the prisoners in the cave, wouldn’t they get hungry too? They would know all sorts of food because they are just like ourselves, foods like broccoli, pizza, noodles, chicken, etc. At some point, wouldn’t they start to consider what healthy eating is? A debate about healthy eating might go like this:
One prisoner might declare that counting calories is the pinnacle of healthy eating because it relates directly to the intelligible numbers. Another prisoner may say to ignore the number of calories because numbers cannot be seen on the wall of shadows -- the only way toward real healthy eating is to abstain from bad foods and to only eat good foods. Another replies to this saying that all foods are good because they provide energy and this creates a lengthy tangent about “good foods” and “bad foods.”
What about health itself? Surely the prisoners would seek to define health itself too:
One prisoner may claim that health is a factor of discipline and that only the most disciplined people are healthy. Another says that all bodies are healthy in and of themselves and that health itself doesn’t exist because there’s no single body we can see that would represent health for everyone. Someone replies to this saying that we can have a representation of health for everyone: a series of tasks that a body should complete and if it can’t then it isn’t healthy.
That definitely sounds like ourselves and our beloved shadows. All of these are shadows but it’s not within the scope of this article to argue which are farther or closer to Health or Healthy Eating itself. My point in bringing up these arguments from inside the cave is to highlight them as shadows. And not only shadows, shadows we have created and shadows we know well.
Shadows to Kill For
At this point it may be easy to understand why the prisoners would kill for their shadows. We love the shadows because we are forced to see them every day and, for many, it’s all we know. Someone dispelling “all we know” is dangerous and forces us to look at wrath, a shadow of justice. The shadows have courts and so there’s laws and legal methods which may lead to putting the dispellers of shadows to death, like Socrates himself. But, most of all, these shadows are our creations and these creations are beloved.
Let’s consider an example where a prisoner is forced to look at something they hold dear. Let’s consider addiction.
The very definition of addiction is someone who can’t stop looking. They can’t stop looking toward their next puff of weed, their next shot of liquor, their next bite of food, or their next scrolling session on their phone. The sight of these activities is forced on us by our minds, bodies, and habits, and it’s difficult to look away. The only way to look away is to turn the whole body away from the impulse to look. The only way to stop looking is by practicing the virtues of the body.
Telling someone about their addictions is an invitation for scorn and hate. Pointing out addiction isn’t welcome because addiction is beloved. The sight of yourself doing an addictive activity is welcome to you and it can even be thought of as a respite. An attempt to take away that respite, however negative, can lead to severe consquences.
The Consensus of Shadow
Another reason why shadows can be dangerous to those who point them out is that the shadows have consensus. All most people know is shadow and so the shadows are reinforced through the consensus of what people think they know.
When someone says, “I always eat till I’m bursting,” that’s reaffirming shadow to others. Similarly, when we ask, “Ah, one more drink wouldn’t hurt you would it?” that’s an invitation to shadow. Someone who says, “I get high every day and it doesn’t affect me,” is attempting to seek consensus in shadow. When a group of friends gets together and say to each other, “Yeah I rotted in bed all day on my phone yesterday -- I’m such a goblin”, that’s shadow in consensus with shadow.
The consensus of shadow necessarily creates groups which ousts those not like their own. The alcoholic who drinks only wine doesn’t have common ground with the alcoholic who drinks only beer. And both of these alcoholics look down their noses at the addict who can’t stop smoking crack cocaine despite the fact that all three of them can’t look away from their own addiction.
In this day in age we have the Internet which creates a rapid consensus of shadow. The global conversation about topics like healthcare, diet, politics, spirituality, and much else -- including discussion about addictive habits like scrolling on devices while scrolling on a device -- is where the consensus of shadow is created most today.
People use the Internet to form groups that create consensus in shadow. Finding a reaffirming worldview based on addiction is easy. I could link to online communities for specific drugs, articles which reaffirm scrolling as “me time”, and blogs which profess they don’t believe that a body can be unhealthy, but I’m not trying to be intentionally provocative.
Likewise, it’s easy to reaffirm worldviews based purely on opinion. Many times, not only do the people talking online not have all of the facts, they have no facts at all. There’s so much pride in their opinions that they type wrathful comments for everyone to see. Often these comments are shared as truth when they were only opinion all along. Here’s what Socrates says about opinion: “Haven’t you noticed that opinions without knowledge are shameful and ugly things? The best of them are blind.” [506c]
There’s so much shadow peddled today based on pleasure, greed, opinion, and much else, that it’s hard to see past it all. And these shadows have a consensus that persuades us into believing they are correct when they aren’t at all.
A Shadow of Education
How do we get to the point where we can discern shadow from truth? How can we turn our bodies away from the darkness and towards the light? Through education, Socrates says. Unfortunately, shadows are everywhere so it’s easy to see how education in the allegory of the cave has become a shadow of itself.
Socrates mentions studying arithmetic and geometry as part of the education towards truth. Haven’t these studies become the very cornerstone of our education systems? But the way we study these is completely opposite to the way Socrates proposed.
Socrates mentions astronomy as a study too but he’s cautious about it for various reasons. When Glaucon presses him on it he says, “As [astronomy] is practiced today by those who teach philosophy, it makes the soul look very much downward.” [529a] He continues, “I can’t conceive of any subject making the soul look upward except one concerned with that which is, and that which is is invisible.” [529b]
For Socrates, the only path toward education is through the virtue of reason by considering the intelligibles. His use of arithmetic and geometry aren’t for rote learning, they are for considering the intelligible truths that we can form in our minds but never see with our eyes. When we know there’s truth that we don’t see or feel or hear with our bodies, only then do we begin to understand.
“This isn’t ... a matter of tossing a coin, but of turning a soul from a day that is a kind of night to the true day -- the ascent to what is, which we say is true philosophy.” [521c]