The Allegory of the Cave is a story told by Plato in his book "The Republic." It is probably the best known piece by Plato and contains with in it the basis of his "Theory of Ideas", the most important of his philosophical proposals and one that has endured in Western Philosophical and influenced philosophy as a whole. Bertrand Russell suggested that the whole of Western philosophy is nothing more than a series of footnotes to Plato's philosophy. Even Marx's idea of the Superstructure owes its existence to Plato's philosophy. The Allegory or Myth of the Cave as it is also known, describes people who have lived their entire lives in a cave, facing a wall watching shadows that are cast by objects passing in front of a fire that is lit behind them. These people believe that the shadows are the only reality that exists even though in fact, they are just a distorted version of reality. When one of the people is freed and sees the outside world...