A philosopher’s bunkie on a hill

If it’s not too painful or distant, cast your mind back to English lit. Your prof is explaining Plato’s Allegory of the Cave to a (likely) hungover crowd of 19- or 20-year-olds.

For those who actually pay attention, it’s quite thought-provoking: imagine one has been chained in a cave all one’s life; while there is a crevice above and light spills down, the cave dwellers are unable to look up, so their only perception of the things of this world are via the two-dimensional, undetailed shadows they cast down; the philosopher, however, is released from the chains, climbs up, and witnesses the true forms, in all of their glory, lit by the sun.