Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a metaphor and representation of perception. Prisoners are chained and forced to look up at the front wall inside of the cave while a fire burns behind them.
Shadows are cast on the wall and the prisoners inside the cave believe that the shadows are the reality they live in because they have been in that cave their whole life. One prisoner has been taken outside and experiences the real world and realizes that what he thought to be reality was nothing but a lie. The prisoner comes back and tells the other prisoners about his discovery but they do not believe him.
“How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never