A Summary of Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Plato’s allegory of the cave describes a group of prisoners captive in a cave. From their birth they are chained in position, unable to move. Their necks are fixed so that all that is visible to them is the blank wall ahead of them, upon which they continuously gaze. Behind the prisoners is a raised walkway, and behind the walkway a huge blazing fire. People make their way across said walkway, carrying objects on their heads. Now, the prisoners are obviously unable to see the walkway, fire or people, as they are forced to face the opposite direction - what they can see however, are the shadows of the people thrown against the blank wall by the glowing light of the fire. 

It is suggested that as this is all the prisoners see, they would believe the shadows to be the reality of vision, and the echos of the noises made behind them to be the reality of sound created by the shadows, which they believe to be real forms. The entire society of these prisoners is based around these shadows and anyone with ‘knowledge’ of these shadowy figures would be regarded as someone with a great understanding of the world.

The allegory asks us to consider one of these prisoners being freed from his bindings and allowed to move as he wishes. When looking at the figures that cause the shadows on the wall, he would not recognise them as reality, and when looking at the fire itself he would be blinded and avert his gaze back towards the shadows, what he believed to be real. If the man were to be dragged from the cave and out into the world above he would be even more blinded by the light of the sun. It’s suggested that bewilderment with an unfamiliar world would cause anger within the once-prisoner. However, after spending time on the surface the man would start to take in his surroundings and form a new understanding of reality. 

When thinking of his past home, the cave, it is suggested that the freed prisoner would consider himself happy and feel pity towards the other men held captive - when thinking of what was classed as wisdom there and the wisdom he has gained from seeing the surface, losing all admiration for any ‘understanding’ of the world these captives believe they hold. 

Not only would the freed-prisoners idea of the still-prisoners and their views change, but vice versa. It is suggested that the prisoners still in the cave would claim that his eyes had been corrupted and that the idea of traveling out of the cave was negligible, even to the extent that given the chance, they would try to kill the man who tried to release them from the cave. The prisoners would consider the freed-man an imbecile, a result of being afraid of that which they don’t know. 

Baudrillard's Simulacrum - Summary and Thoughts

Jean Baudrillard

Jean Baudrillard, the French Sociologist and Philosopher, dictates that art and reality have become entirely separate to the point where the genealogy between them is totally disconnected. He does however suggest that this disconnection is traceable through 4 distinct steps, each an important turning point in reality's descent to the 'universal simulacrum' (a phrase I don't entirely agree with, but i'll get to that later).

The first step is a 'reflection of a basic reality', a literal and true portrayal of a subject [reality]. The second is an entirely new and standalone subject, that 'masks and perverts' the aforementioned basic reality. A deceptive reality, with an absence of any true [real] subject comes third, before the fourth and final phase where the subject bears "no relation to any reality whatsoever", falling into 'it's own pure simulacrum'.

Baudrillard states that at this point reality is redundant and the images fall into a 'hyper-reality', losing all connection between the image and what it originally signified. 

Here's a visual representation of these four steps, using my own face (you lucky people).

For those unaware of what exactly a simulacrum (plural: simulacra) is, you may already be familiar with the meaning just unfamiliar with the terminology (I didn't know the word even existed until this study). 

In Latin, the word Simulacrum translates to 'similarity' or 'likeness' and when originally used in the 16th century it referred to a representation, commonly of a God or deity and generally in the form of a painting or sculpture (be it a statue, effigy or figurine). Think 'simulation'.

The evolution of the original meaning towards the one employed by Baudrillard is easy to follow through philosophical history. The fact that within the field of Philosophy, and in general, there are multiple definitions and views of simulacra, made me question the idea of what a 'universal simulacrum' is and whether its existence is even possible. 

Plato

In one of Plato's dialogues, Sophist, he references two types of imagery, preceding and offering an alternative to Baudrillard's 4 step model. The first is a genuine and accurate reproduction with the intention of producing a realistic copy of reality. The second is purposely distorted so that it appears accurate to the onlooker. To explain and expand on this second form of imagery, Plato uses the example of Greek statues which were at times made larger and technically anatomically disproportionate on their top half so that when viewed from standing appear to be correct and in proportion. This is a form of simulacrum, but one which is dissimilar to Baudrillard's representation. 

Nietzsche also refers to simulacra, albeit conceptually, in "The Twilight of the Idols" without employing the explicit terminology. He does so by suggesting that most philosophers choose (be it consciously or not) to become too encapsulated in the human constructs of language and reason and disregard the reliability of their own senses. Because of this, they place themselves in a distorted version, a simulacrum if you will, of true reality. 

So as you can see, Baudrillard's idea of a 'hyper-reality' as the final form of simulacra is not one that is 'universally' shared, and thus should not be described as such. 

But I digress.