What represent the outside world in the allegory of the cave?

Answer 1

In Plato's Allegory of the Cave, the outside world represents truth. When the prisoner is forced out of his comfortable darkness and into the outside world, he is blinded by the difference in light and finds this new environment excruciating. This represents the discomfort that often comes along with leaving one's comfort zone in the quest for knowledge. Eventually, the prisoner looks up to the sun, and despite feeling the most discomfort yet, understands its immense influence on the world around him.

When he returns to the case and tells his fellow prisoners about what he's seen, they mock him. This represents the judgment of masses, however ignorant they may be to higher levels of truth.

Examples of this judgment in later years include the execution of Socrates and the life-long house arrest Galileo Galilei was put under.