Plato's Cave & Social Media

Seán Radcliffe asks, has Plato's Allegory of the Cave been warning us of social media for 2,400 years?

- Seán Radcliffe

The 'Allegory of the Cave' is a Socratic argument recorded by the Greek philosopher Plato, a student of Socrates, and the writer of The Republic (c.375 BCE), which contains a dialogue between Socrates and Plato's brother Glaucon. The Allegory is a metaphorical story in which prisoners are chained up in a cave, facing a wall.

There is a bright fire behind them, so the prisoners can see the shadows of people and objects that pass behind them that are cast on the wall. These shadows are the only reality they know, until one of the prisoners escapes to the outside, real world.

Socrates argues that the freed prisoner would return and try to liberate his fellow prisoners, now knowing what exists outside the cave and how their reality is distorted. However, at the discussion's conclusion, Socrates and Glaucon agree that the other prisoners would likely kill anyone who tries to free them, as they would not want to leave the safety and comfort of their known world.