In The Republic by Plato, we find the Allegory of the Cave, a symbolic story, told by Socrates, which asserts that all humanity starts out in ignorance and is eventually pushed to seek further knowledge. Socrates believed that those who through their inclination to learn the truth leave the Cave, are dutifully to return and help others find the world that existed on the surface. However, I must agree with Glaucon's hesitation about forcing someone who has managed to leave the Cave and have become accustomed to the surface's way of life and enlightenment to return to ignorance to save others if it makes them unhappy. I will try to explain my doubts through comparison to modern day religions and our uncertainty as to the discovery of the truth.
In the allegory, Socrates describes a dark cave deep in the Earth. In the back of the cave there is a fire, the only light and the only way to see in the cave. In front of the fire is a roadway with people walking across with objects to cast shadows with the fire. These objects are cutouts, consisting of the shapes of animals and plants. Plato is describing the Cave as the world as we are taught children. The cutouts represent our religious morals and the morals taught by our parents. They also represent our images of reality in the external world of appearances. .
On a level below the roadway and the fire, are men and women with their backs to the fire. They have been chained by their heads and legs and have been completely immobile since childhood. They live their lives watching the shadow against the walls, perceiving what they believe is reality. They shout what they believe each shadow to be and have even formed a stratified society according to who can guess the items correctly. Suddenly a man free of chains appears in the Cave. He releases a prisoner by force, drags him out of the cave, into the light of the fire and the Sun. The people carrying the cutouts seem like symbolic parents or leaders.
