THE ALLEGORY OF THE

CAVE
BY
PLATO
WHAT IS THE “ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE” ALL
ABOUT??

• According to Mike Bernard:

Plato’s "Allegory of the Cave" is a concept devised by the philosopher to ruminate on the nature of belief versus
knowledge.
The allegory states that there exists prisoners chained together in a cave. Behind the prisoners is a fire, and between
the fire and the prisoners are people carrying puppets or other objects. This casts a shadow on the other side of the wall.
The prisoners watch these shadows, believing them to be real.
Plato posits that one prisoner could become free. He finally sees the fire and realizes the shadows are fake. This
prisoner could escape from the cave and discover there is a whole new world outside that they were previously unaware
of.
This prisoner would believe the outside world is so much more real than that in the cave. He would try to return to
free the other prisoners. Upon his return, he is blinded because his eyes are not accustomed to actual sunlight. The
chained prisoners would see this blindness and believe they will be harmed if they try to leave the cave.
 BELIEF VS KNOWLEDGE

• Knowledge and belief are not only distinct attitudes but they also have a distinct and
proprietary objectives.
• Whereas, belief can be true or false, knowledge is neither.
• But belief is a necessary condition for knowledge. (Bencivegna, 1999) Knowledge is
acquired by deriving beliefs from other beliefs (foundation beliefs).
• Therefore, we accept belief(s)as a foundational principle because; 1. They are innate,
2.they are beliefs about present conscious experience, 3. They are beliefs that belong to
our sense of experience. 4. They are self-evident.
PLATO’S EXPLANATION OF KNOWLEDGE

• “Knowledge is justified true belief”

• “Believing what is true and having reason to back it up”
• Three features of knowledge:
• 1. Belief
• 2. Truth
• 3. Justification
HOW TO DETERMINE THE DIFFERENCE OF
KNOWLEDGE AND BELIEF
• By using the formula
• K = JTB
• When one knows something, it must be the truth and one must be aware of it
• When one believes something, it is not necessarily true
• Belief is a subjective requirement for knowledge, if we know something is true, then we
must believe it, but just because we believe it, it does not make it true,
 BELIEF VS KNOWLEDGE

• The impact of knowledge, belief and truth, shape us and our ideas of mind, which reflects in
our worldly life. Its outcome affects the people and society of our own. We, the human beings
are interested in knowledge, because we are interested in the truth of our belief and the search
for knowledge is the search for justification, which guarantees the truth.