Q0221

Plato

A verified English rendering from the curated archive.

English

Picture human beings as if living in an underground, cave-like dwelling.
Thinker Plato
School Platonism
Source Republic VII 514a
Theme Knowledge
Another quotation More from this thinker

Source context

This English passage is associated with Republic VII 514a, within the tradition of Platonism. The wording below is a verified rendering prepared for careful reading rather than a claim of unique translation authority.

A short reading

Read in the register of knowledge, the sentence asks the reader to test an assumption rather than to collect a slogan. In Plato's wider work, similar claims are usually offered as prompts for judgment: what would have to be true for the sentence to hold, and what would follow if it did?

How to cite this quotation

APA: Plato. (n.d.). Picture human beings as if living in an underground, cave-like dwelling. In Philosophy Blind Box. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0221

MLA: Plato. “Picture human beings as if living in an….” Philosophy Blind Box, https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0221.

Chicago: Plato. “Picture human beings as if living in an….” Philosophy Blind Box. Accessed 2026. https://www.philosophydef.com/quotes/q0221.

Same thinker

More from Plato

  1. Justice is doing one's own work and not meddling in others'.
  2. Love is the desire for the perpetual possession of the good.
  3. Let us not become haters of argument — that is a great danger to the soul.
  4. Extreme freedom seems to change into nothing but extreme slavery.
  5. First, it always is, and neither comes to be nor perishes.

All quotations by Plato

Same theme

More on knowledge

  1. What I do not know, I do not claim to know.
  2. No one errs willingly.
  3. What then is time? If no one asks me, I know; if I wish to explain it to one who asks, I do not know.
  4. What do I know?
  5. Once in a lifetime, everything must be doubted.

Browse the knowledge theme