What does Plato's allegory of the cave say about truth, beauty, and what is important?

Truth is the relationship between knowledge and the form.





Beauty is the relationship between the form and the image.





What is important is to share you perspectives with others so that together you can learn what is real and what is merely percieved.





That is the shortened version of the answer, cutting through all the symbollisms and metaphors.





If you want more just ask. I left that cave years ago and at times I go back to unchain others.What does Plato's allegory of the cave say about truth, beauty, and what is important?
The cave is the limitations we put on ourselves. We limit are understanding to what we know. Some refuse to except that their is more. Those who leave the cave learn the truth.


The truth is we know nothing. The wisest of men knows nothing.What does Plato's allegory of the cave say about truth, beauty, and what is important?
Plato's allegory of the cave says that all of our values are based on our possibly limited perception of the world, and that we hold dearly onto those perceptions, even when given evidence of the bigger picture.





This could compare to how people care about the lives of celebrities more than universal truths. Most people would pick up a magazine about Brittany Spears before they pick up a magazine about philosophy or spirituality.
It says that our apprehension of such things as truth and beauty in this world happens as a result of a metaphysic of participation in the essential forms of these realities.
I feel that Platos cave demonstrates the importance of seeking truth within oneself. Thus leaving the cave is a inward journey, ';freeing up';, as it were. I see that the truth and beauty one experiences when one leaves the cave is unique yet parallel in everyone who is succesful in their search.





Realising the truth is such an amazing experience and accessible to everyone, that the seeker wishes to share it with everyone and by doing this puts himself at risk of destruction by the people who are not seekers but deniers.





To leave the cave is a transcendent human faculty and the proof of this is in Platos timeless appeal. God! it is so exciting.