Plato's Cave and Empiricism

In the passage from the Republic commonly referred to as 'Plato's Cave', a contrast is drawn between shadows and real objects, which Plato procedes to assert is the relation between sensory and intellectual objects. Since Empiricism can be defined as entailing the thesis that intellectual objects are no more than abstractions from sensory objects, Plato is explicitly espousing anti-Empiricist position in this passage. However, the passage is open to a complete inversion by an Empiricist. For, the latter can argue that from the perspective of the 'real' objects outside the cave, metaphor and thought are only abstractions. Thus, Plato's transition from those objects to less palpable entities can easily be interpreted by an Empiricist as a return to the shadows in the cave.