... they would be able to exit the cave into a world of previously unknown stimulus, with barely recognizable reference points i.e. the people being three dimensional colour versions of the shadows with voices unchanged by echo. After some time to orientate himself he could return to the cave to attempt to explain to his fellow prisoners what he had seen, but would not have language to do so. We are the prisoners in the cave. For example, different breeds, colours, sizes of dog would still clearly be a dog to us. Plato believed that there was an ideal form of a dog that existed in an eternal unchanging world of forms. This is the world of true reality and we live in an ever changing world of our senses. Just as the prisoner's shadows do not encapsulate every pure aspect of their source, our reality is merely our perception by our ...

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