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The Cave Allegory: The Meaning Of The Cave

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The meaning of the cave allegory is clear. The cave represents the world of appearances, the world in which most people live. Outside the cave is the intelligible world of forms. The sun represents the ultimate form of good. It is the source of all other forms in the upper world and the cause of their mutual order and harmony. The search for truth is represented allegorically as leaving the cave of false or imperfect images of reality and entering the upper world of pure unchanging forms that alone are the true objects of knowledge.
Clearly, we cannot have knowledge of shadows because they are not real; they are ceaselessly shifting images of something much more basic and precisely because these images change and alter their shapes and positions,

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