Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

​​Jared Harris, PhDAssociate Professor of Business Administration
Darden School of Business
University of Virginia

​Winter 2023 Forum in Review​Introduction​Plato’s Allegory of the Cave​How to Leverage Social Media​AI for the Public Sector​State of the State Budgets​Budget Roundtable​Nationalism Revived

Ideas originating from Plato (400 BC) were brought to life and made relevant to state senate leaders during a discussion led by Jared Harris, PhD, Associate Professor of Business Administration at the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia. Dr. Harris presented Plato’s cave as an allegory illustrating the barriers to breaking out of familiar perceptions in order to consider adopting new ideas. A group of shackled prisoners held in a cave are shown shadows thrown by a fire and spend their time naming the shadows. This is their view of reality. When one prisoner escapes into the brilliant light of the sun and brings back a description of the outside world, they believe he is mad, and ignore him. Dr. Harris challenged the senators to apply the elements of Plato’s metaphor to their work in the senate, to consider times when their perceptions and perspectives changed, and to identify the drivers that are key to changing perceptions.

​Jared Harris, PhD, shared this animated video of Plato's Allegory of the Cave 

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The Value of Metaphors

Participants recognized the value of metaphors noting that stories can help to communicate new ideas in a more memorable, understandable, and less intimidating way.

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Sen. Paul Newton (NC)
Stories can personalize and humanize new concepts by relating them to familiar ideas and making them less intimidating. A story can make a policy decision more understandable and memorable.

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Factors That Drive Changes in Perception

The Senators pointed out that changing perceptions can be a challenge. They discussed times when their perspectives changed while examining the catalysts that enabled change, including access to new information, major life-altering events, changes in geography, and greater experience.

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Sen. Ron Kouchi (HI)
New information can open up new perspectives. If you listen to the passion in people’s discussions, you can understand what is important to them, and better grasp their perspective.

Dan Wahby (Eli Lilly and Company )
New information and hearing from stakeholders can be helpful but emotion and passion can alter the information, and the media may manipulate information to have a positive or negative effect on changing perceptions.

Sen. Matthew Huffman (OH)
Sometimes, longer experience is required to change perceptions. In the 1970s, I thought term limits were a good idea. But after years of working in the House and Senate, I recognize that the bureaucracy has institutional knowledge that new legislators do not have. So my perspective on term limits has changed.

Sen. Ann Millner (UT)
Change begins with us and with our willingness to take in new information; however, people often cling to their familiar perceptions. We are challenged to communicate new ideas in a way that people can absorb them.

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Plato’s Cave: Applications to Modern Political Life

Participants explored the interpretation of Plato’s metaphors as applied to the legislators’ lives and work. They noted that the cave represents the most familiar context, which can be the environment, a senator’s district, a chamber, or a legislature. It is a person’s most habitual perspective. The prisoners’ shackles represent limitations, which sometimes are self-imposed constraints such as personal values, and sometimes the result of external forces such as budget limitations, participants said.

The applications to political life are many: Leaders are challenged to inspire people to remove their shackled thinking and get out of the familiar cave, to recognize and assess a potential new idea, and be able to see a different perspective. Leadership requires that you bring your constituents along on this journey, Dr. Harris said.

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Sen. Rod Bray (IN)
The cave imposes a limited view, and the shackles that keep you in there may be structural factors such as poverty or lack of education. The media outlets that you choose also can impose shackles by providing a slanted view.

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Enlightenment comes from exposure and experience. People have to make the journey out of their cave by themselves. We need to understand where they are coming from and empathize with them. It’s critical to go talk to constituents and listen to them.

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Sen. Jonathan Dismang (AR)
Ethics may be considered positive shackles; they can be guidelines and guardrails that impose limits on what you are willing to consider.

Sen. Matthew Huffman (OH)
Restrictions on learning and thought are shackles that keep people in their caves. The sun in Plato’s story represents Truth, but how do we know we’ve found it or are we just in a new cave?

​“We can’t ever know if we are in a cave or not. We have to retain our skepticism, considering that we might be in a cave now and that there’s a possibility for future enlightenment.”— Jared Harris

Sen. David Sokola (DE)
The requirement for a balanced budget can be seen as a shackle, but the budget also must reflect our values. We have to decide whether our values dictate that we need new revenues to exceed the budget or whether we cut certain programs without violating our values.

Sen. Paul Newton (NC)
It’s essential to really understand opposing perspectives, to discover whatever good ideas are implicit in their thinking, so that they see that you understand their perspectives. This makes it possible to help people move from where they are to new insights.

Sen. Greg Reed (AL)
We have to be willing to take a risk, to listen to other perspectives, negotiate to find common ground, and be open to change. Sometimes new information can throw into question what we previously said we would do and a change in direction can be perceived as weakness. However, new information supports learning and can lead to more informed decision-making. We have to be able to explain this evolution to our constituents.

Sen. Jonathan Dismang (AR)
In Plato’s metaphor, the fire focuses on what you choose to illuminate. You can either stoke the fire and control what’s illuminated, or watch what others want to shine a light on. Social media and news feeds can be stoking the fire, throwing shadows that they want to be seen. It’s important for the legislature to be stoking the fire, providing information and enlightenment about issues to their constituents.

​“New information supports learning and can lead to more informed decision-making. We have to be able to explain this evolution to our constituents.”— Sen. Greg Reed

Sen. Ron Kouchi (HI)
It’s important to be able to listen well, subvert the ego, and change your mind when that makes sense. Give others the credit for new ideas that they are excited about and that have inspired a new perspective.

Sen. Page Cortez (LA)
Legislators are inundated with information, we have to synthesize this information and be open to amendment, while being guided by the Art of the Possible. Engage with the people who take ownerships of the issue, and find zones of potential agreement.

Sen. Ann Millner (UT)
Helping people break out of their “cave” is a complex process that is based on relationships. Sometimes a senator is not the best person to present a new idea; but it is more effective to create a larger conversation, bringing in constituents who agree and disagree about an issue and allowing them to work through the issue themselves. This is a better process to build ownership, share perspectives, and work through to a compromise.

Sen. Beth Mizell (LA)
When we are leading people, we may be proposing a reality that is beyond their imagination, like the prisoner who escaped into the sun. Often, we try to do this with data and information. But the metaphor shows that we have to humanize this new reality so that others can become open to a bigger world, a new perspective.

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In conclusion, Dr. Harris said, “The continued success of democracy requires us to recognize our caves and be open to new perspectives, ready and willing to get out of our caves, and to take others with us.”

Presenter Biography

Jared D. Harris, PhD

Associate Professor of Business Administration
Darden School of Business
University of Virginia

Associate Professor Jared Harris, appointed to the Samuel L. Slover Research Professorship, teaches both "Ethics" and "Strategy" courses in Darden's MBA program and a doctoral seminar on corporate governance and ethics. His research centers on the interplay between ethics and strategy, with a particular focus on the topics of corporate governance, business ethics and interorganizational trust. His work on corporate financial misrepresentation won the 2007 Best Dissertation Award in one division of the Academy of Management (social issues in management) and qualified him as one of six finalists in another division (business policy and strategy). His work has been published in Organization Science and Business Ethics Quarterly and has been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post and The New Yorker, as well as other media outlets in the United States, Canada, Germany, India, Portugal and the United Kingdom.

Prior to joining the Darden faculty in 2006, Harris taught at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. Previously, he worked as a certified public accountant and consultant for several leading public accounting firms in Boston, Portland and Oregon. He also served as the CFO of a small technology firm in Washington, D.C.

A fellow with the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics and a senior fellow with Darden's Olsson Center for Applied Ethics, Harris is also a research partner of Open Ethics and Compliance Group (OCEG) and the Institute of Management Accountants (IMA). He consults with several leading financial services companies on the topics of strategic management, ethics and compliance.

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