Consider the following from Book VII of Plato’s The Republic and what is commonly known as The Allegory of the Cave : Imagine human beings living in an underground, cavelike dwelling, with an entrance a long way up, which is both open to the light and as wide as the cave itself. They’ve been there since childhood, fixed in the same place, with their necks and legs fettered able to see only in front of them, because their bonds prevent them from turning their heads around. Light is provided by a fire burning far above and behind them. Also behind them, but on a higher ground, there is a path stretching between them and the fire. Imagine that along this path a low wall has been built, like the screen in front of puppeteers above which they show their puppets. The prisoners would in every way believe that the truth is nothing other than the shadows of those artifacts. When one of them was freed and suddenly compelled to stand up turn his head, walk and look up toward the l...
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