Next he can see the reflections of things in water and later is able to see things themselves. He is first able to see only shadows of things. “Slowly, his eyes adjust to the light of the sun. Plato’s freed are dragged in pain and irritation up and out of the cave, whereupon the discomfort only intensifies as the radiant light of the sun overwhelms the eyes. Like Plato’s freed, scientists who ultimately leave the lab to see the world outside inevitably begin to question their previous beliefs. This is part of why, in spite of the push for more ‘engagement’ with publics beyond academe, these activities are not professionally recognised in the same way as more traditional activities like peer-reviewed publications.” This was described best by Melonie Fullick, a fellow blogger in her article “ ‘Public Intellectuals’ A Losing Game.” Here she laments that knowledge dissemination to non-specialist audiences “means ‘dumbing down’ one’s message. While Plato argues that only those who have ascended to the highest level of knowledge (whom he calls philosopher kings), must then return to share in their labours with the masses, I believe that public intellectuals, regardless of academic standing, should become the rule, not the exception.Īcademic culture, far from promoting new perspectives, implicitly encourages a low regard for those who work in the “public” eye. It is only by leaving the cave that I have come to understand that the shadows on the wall do not make up reality at all.
Plato’s Allegory of the Cave is therefore a fitting analogy, and as a young academic scientist I have often felt that I was facing a blank wall where shadows of things passing in front of a fire behind me were projected. Today’s young academic scientists are trapped in the lab, which is not so different from a cave.
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