Plato’s cave

What is Plato’s cave meant to teach us about philosophy? Perhaps a good place to start is
The more fundamental question, is Plato’s cave meant to teach us about philosophy? And
If so, how do we know that?
To answer this question we must ask yet another question, what is philosophy? The standard definition is, of course, that it is the love of wisdom. But what is wisdom? As you can see we are standing on the brink of an infinite regress, with each new definition leading to a proposition which itself begs a definition. Let us then cut the proverbial knot and propose a proposition of fundamental transcendent absoluteness. Let us call this necessary proposition truth, wisdom then being knowledge of truth. Now we have working definition of philosophy. Still we may wish to understand it further before continuing. Truth, it seems, must come to us through a medium, what we might call reality. Reality that is closest to truth we can call ultimate reality, or metaphysics. To get us from where we are to our goal (truth) we need a vehicle. That vehicle is epistemology. Finally we need to be able to apply truth to our medium. For that we will need teleology and ethics.
Now armed with these definitions and categories let us return to the cave and see how they may be applicable.
As metaphysics has primacy, let us start with it. So what does the “cave” teach us about a theory of truth? It is not like the dialogs of Euthyphro and Thrasymachus where truth is pursued through dialectical means (yet still remains ever illusive). It is instead a story or parable where there is no dialog outside the narration. Therefore if it deals with truth, truth must be represented by something within the story. As it turns out there is something in the story that appears to represent truth – light. The light is clearest and most direct in the world above, as one descends into the cave it becomes dimmer and more mediated. Till we come to the fire, barely a weak parody of the light above, and at last the shadows on the wall themselves. The light at this point is highly mediated, but importantly it is still light. The prisoners are not in total darkness. Here, I believe, Plato is trying to teach us that truth, however mediated and inferior to less mediated truth, is still infinitely better than no truth.
So how about epistemology? The “cave” does appear to have a strong epistemological current running through it, but it is a rather ironic one. The released prisoner’s experiences are definitely empirical, his joints ache, his hurt, etc. But is it empiricism Plato is advocating? No. If that were the case the prisoner would not have been lead to the surface but merely to more caves with more shadows. The light is the light of reason. The released prisoner is enlightened not because he has more data or even “better” data but because he has a means by which to understand the data.
This brings us to ethics. At first glance we might say that the “moral” of the “cave” is that people should not be kept chained in the cave when they can more directly access the light of truth. But how do we know that? Did not the prisoner have to suffer for his wisdom? Who is to say that the truth is worth the trials? Perhaps the chains are there for our protection. To answer this I think we must turn to teleology. Is it the purpose of man to be in the “cave”? No. It is clear that if the prisoners belonged in the cave they would not be men, they would be something else. For men have legs that can stand and hands that can grasp and heads that can turn. So, just as man’s body is designed to walk upright in the world above, looking around even up and seeing things in depth and color. So also, I believe what Plato is telling us, is man’s mind is not meant for the “cave” but for wisdom. Therefore we ought to pursue philosophy and if our humanity is not to atrophy, we must.