Spelunking

What strikes me most about the allegory of the cave is the layering involved. While I won't go too much into detail, for fear of later being redundant during my presentation, in the one individual's journey, three are taken.

 First, and most common is the social; Socrates narrates the journey of any given Athenian-- or indeed any given person-- through the levels of increasing socialization, ranging from familial instruction to acclimation to the culture, and even formal education before moving onto questioning and developing the culture and society.

Secondly is the journey of the soul (which will also be referred to as the spiritual journey). Here we see a soul brought into darkness-- amnesis-- then shown the fire which makes it aware of its state of ignorance, before beginning its ascent to anamnesis, all the while stumbling as its level of enlightenment changes. Eventually, the soul is able to ascend to the realm of the Forms in its reckoning with the entirety of the sun. At this point, to go backward back into darkness is not only a descent, but as blurring and numbing as the ascent originally was.

Thirdly, there is the journey of the philosopher. One begins unaware that there could be a reality other than the one being experienced. It is in questioning and being unable to accommodate something new in one's previous system that reveals the flaws of one's perceived reality (such as the inability to explain the objects and fire as a part of the world of shadows). From this point, one begins on a ascent of inquiry, all the while stumbling and squinting to discern what is and what is not real. The ultimate goal is to understand the Forms, but in doing so, one must trek long and hard, all the while resisting the urge to become complacent in the degree of light that one's wisdom finds itself until the sun is finally grasped. At this point, to go back and accept the images and reflections of opinion and assumption of the old reality would be a dizzying miasmic blur.

The last and to the philosopher, the most important piece is the charge. Socrates sends the enlightened individual back down into the cave to enlighten his fellows. While it is a hard trip back, the philosopher must cling to the wisdom he has gained and resist the urge to acclimate himself to the darkness. His duty is to lead others out, not fall back into their place.

 When one takes a step back from the allegory and looks at the narrative as a whole, this charge is executed by Socrates in his own descent from the enlightenment (or at least the perceived enlightenment) of Athens, down into the Piraeus: down from the upper echelons to the common folk: another moment of Plato's framing Socrates as the ideal philosopher-- never complacent, and always dragging others to the light.