They do not see shadows as shadows.
The prisoners take what appears before them as reality itself. Even their knowledge of themselves and one another is confined to this field. Education begins by disturbing that unquestioned familiarity.
- What appears
- The passing figures, taken as the things themselves.
- What remains unseen
- The artifacts, the fire, and the dependence of the images on them.
“the truth is nothing other than the shadows of artificial things”
Bloom · as read in the course · 514a–515cCONSIDERWhat would let a shadow appear to you as a shadow?