Behold! I show you human beings living in a deep underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light. Here they have been bound from their childhood and the mouth of the den is a long way but is discernable.
And do you see passing across the mouth of this den and in the open air figures and various unknown forms and ideas gloriously radiant in the light?
They are strange prisoners these denizens of the dark... Like ourselves. They see only vague images of the forms of true things. Their vision is obscured by the mist of ignorance and the smoke of superstition.
And now look
again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners’
bonds are able to stretch, for though they are anciently strong
they are elastic. With an effort the prisoners strain toward the
light and effect a short movement forward. The light grows a little
brighter, the forms less indistinct. Now, within reach, are tools
that further stretch the bounds; that clear mist and smoke.
This cavern is our present world, and you will not misapprehend
me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of humans
into the intellectual world of the true understanding of the way
of nature.
Whether rightly or wrongly I hold that our destiny is linked to the world of knowledge that lies before us as we strive for the light.
Rejected
by reason is any philosophy that postulates a world not available
to our senses or to the instruments and instrumentalities we have
developed to augment those senses. The world is our only home.