I think the allegory, as it stands, is cool enough in persuading readers to contemplate things like truth, etc.
Yet, consider the begining text, when it has Socrates asking Glaucon to visualize the prisoner(s) being "released."
This point, I figure, either presumes that one of the various non-prisoners freed them, or that a previously released prisoner(s) propogates the abolition of cave-prisoners. For one thing, the allegory does not make any inferences that the chains/fetters binding the prisoners have even the possibility of failing in and of themselves.
This seems to mean that "if" a previously held prisoner is the agent who releases the new crop of prisoners, he or she must have previously been "released" by one of the "controllers."
any thoughts?
peace, ron
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