How does the allegory of the cave?
Plato seems to say this: The majority of people, like those in the cave, only experience a very small part of reality and know nothing else: they think what they see is the whole world. But there are a few people who, for whatever reason, have seen a little more of reality – have seen things few people get the chance to see and have gained more knowledge. They are the people who can venture out the cave. (So Plato’s cave = typical human perception.) It is difficult, however, for the majority of people (like those in the cave) to determine whether someone claiming to have seen more of reality and to have more knowledge (someone claiming to have been outside the cave) is enlightened or mad. Plato (if I remember rightly) writes that, for the people in the cave, it is impossible to tell the mad men from the truth-tellers because if someone’s eyes are re-adjusting to the light in the cave, they may have come from somewhere brighter but also from somewhere darker (they may have actually “see
