The Allegory of the Cave
by Plato · first published 2010
15% recommend79% neutral6% critical
Why HN recommends it
Short, widely taught allegory of prisoners mistaking shadows for reality; a foundational text on perception, education, and how knowledge escapes received belief, suiting readers new to philosophy.
Common criticism: One commenter found it uninteresting and uninformative on rereading.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
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In times like this one, I think it is important to revisit the Allegory of the Cave [0][1]. Try to think about the cave as wherever you personally started your own education instead of broadening it to any given country. Once you have an idea of what that is and what that is not, imagine…
on “Why so many Chinese students can’t understand the Hong Kong protests” ↗…patterns we see throughout reality. Truth & Power (Michel Foucault) — I'm not a fan of most so-called continental philosophy, but Foucault's ideas about cultural structures has always stuck with me. The Allegory of the Cave (Plato; section in The Republic) — classic; some might say the basic idea underpinning all philosophical and scientific inquiry. Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus (Ludwig Wittgenstein) — I'll admit I never…
on “Ask HN: Mind bending books to read and never be the same as before?” ↗…is reading the rationales and the results, not only the results. "Ricard+Revel - The Monk and the Philosopher" http://www.amazon.com/Monk-Philosopher-Father-Discuss-Meanin... "Socrates(/Plato) - The Allegory of the Cave" http://www.historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html "Plato(/Socrates/others) - Symposium" http://www.amazon.com/Symposium-Plato/dp/0872200760 "Bertrand Russell - The Conquest of Happiness" http://www.amazon.com/Conquest-Happiness-Bertrand-Russell/dp...
on “Ask HN: Best Philosophical Books?” ↗…or any of the others... because people would have been conditioned not to take risks. Anyway Plato wrote already wrote a response to this and it was in all the Philosophy 101 classes. * Plato, "The Allegory of the Cave" || http://historyguide.org/intellect/allegory.html
on “How I made sure all 12 of my kids could pay for college themselves” ↗Plato gave a better response with his allegory of the cave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave Any information an AI has access to has been extracted from text, which isn't all that different to shadows on a cave wall in the ways that matter.
on “Response to AI slop is from Robin Williams” ↗…happens when you try to thorough examine objects while sleeping. Constructed worlds tend to be skin deep, and fall apart when poked. Everything is build with ideas drawn from your experience. Its Plato's Allegory of the Cave all the way down. Imagine "watching" a movie compressed using your very own prior knowledge. Every scene could be described in couple of hundred lines of plaintext. Today we do this by reading a book…
on “Probabilistic programming does in 50 lines of code what used to take thousands” ↗Plato and Nietzsche are far from atypical. Being two of the West's most literary philosophers, they routinely turn up in high school. Excerpts from Plato's Repulic (e.g. The Allegory of the Cave) and any of Nietzsche's aphoristic works are especially common. Academics are embarrased by it, because its filled with "non-collegial" behaviour. But that just means they don't get out much. Where…
on “Ask HN: What literature do you read?” ↗Is this the real-life equivalent to Plato's Allegory of the Cave [1]? I wonder if books like Zelazny's Amber series will seem, in retrospect, more insightful. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave
on “Study reveals substantial evidence of holographic universe” ↗If you didn't know, his example is just a re-hash of Plato's cave: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave
on “Rebuilding Quantum Theory From Simple Physical Principles” ↗…The objective reality is that it's the same wine, but our subjective reality, from what we see, from what we taste, is that the expensive bottle is a fine wine. Plato recognised this when he penned the Allegory of the Cave (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_Cave) I've started to apply this realisation to life in general. If someone has a different viewpoint, I try to understand why they think that way, what…
on “A tool that lets you hear both Yanny and Laurel” ↗This is not a new idea or concept. Let us not forget the Allegory of the Cave. Plato Was discussing this same issue long ago.
on “We Need to Find Out If We Are Living in a Simulation” ↗…personally very skeptical. Also from the article: >> “As painful as reality can be, it’s also the only place where you can find true happiness. Because reality is real. Do you understand?” Plato's Allegory of the Cave precedes social media by a substantial margin: >> Plato's “Allegory of the Cave” appears in Book 7 of his masterwork, “The Republic.” Plato wrote “The Republic,” a sustained disquisition on a utopian…
on “The benefits of staying off social media” ↗…characters in video games. We can't do anything about it. Furthermore, since we are probably unable to change the simulation, we might as well accept it to be reality. Some might reply to this with the "Allegory of the Cave": > Plato has Socrates describe a group of people who have lived chained to the wall of a cave all of their lives, facing a blank wall. The people watch shadows projected on the wall by things passing…
on “Red Pill, Blue Pill: Is the Universe Just a Giant Computer Simulation?” ↗I'm not sure what the connection was, exactly, but this story talking about coyotes and raccoons in finance gave me an epiphany of understanding about Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
on “Too Clever by Half” ↗…anything like that, and it began to dawn on me that many intelligent people could get through their whole life without ever really dealing with complexity. It was at this point that I realized what Plato's Allegory of the Cave was really about; the apparent complexity of the world and the actual complexity of the world diverge strongly.
on “Wondering about the link between intelligence and meaning” ↗