Staring at the wall ... still

The Allegory of the Cave, by far one of Socrates more interesting works, depicts a story of people bound in a cave from birth, forced to face a blank wall and the only glimpse of reality, or our version of reality was seen from the shadows cast from the fire behind them. Visions of animals and other objects never actually seen in the physical, a life experienced through a keyhole or in Socrates case through shadows. Socrates attempt to explain just how fragile the human mind truly is and how easily influenced the brains perceptions can be and what some people perceive as reality would in fact be an illusion. He then goes on about a man (who has spent his entire life since childhood bound in a dark cave) would perceive reality. To be dragged out of the world known your whole life and to be quite literally tossed into reality. Some may not want this because for them ignorance is bliss, or possibly they are terrified at the idea of their reality being destroyed. Socrates had many theories on reality, but in “the Cave” it can be said that he is trying to express how reality is a human construct created through experiences, and from those experiences perceptions are created and applied.