Plato's Allegory of The Cave Part One
Plato's The Allegory of the Cave" has been used as metaphor throughout time. As you blog in class think about some of the following questions and major ideas listed below. This is a scored blog; however, you will not just be scored on how many times you comment, but the uniqueness, originality, and creativity that you will bring to the discussion. Do not just comment without referencing the text or your peers. Read other comments and make connections to what your other classmates are saying. IT IS OKAY TO DISAGREE just support why. Do not repeat the same ideas that are presented by your peers. Use direct quotes from the reading, make connections and think outside the box. Most importantly have fun, and hope that our first experiment with the laptops goes well.
Concepts/ideas to think about
Concepts/ideas to think about
- What is truth according to Plato?
- What do the prisoners inside the cave represent?
- What is outside the cave?
- What happens to someone that leaves the cave?
- What determines truth?
- What happens when one's truth is proven wrong?
- What is reality?
- Role of our senses
- How does this tie into society today? What are our caves?
- Why did Plato write this?
- Is it better to stay in the cave then leave the cave?
- What is perceived of those who leave the cave?
- What does the cave look like?
- Can we connect this piece of work to Athenian government? Afterall, this was a chapter in Plato's Republic.
posted by Alison | 6:17 PM
22 Comments:
I believe that prisoners inside the cave are not only people, but people who are not educated to the fullest capacity, and that the people outside the cave are the more educated people. but to be fully educated you need to be able to go back to understanding the people in the shadows.
I think that most things that are used for bad were originally made for good, but thought of in a different way and therefor used for bad.
The shadows represent what the uneducated people see but don't understand. So when the people in the cave go out and get educated and come back and get used to the shadows again they understand what the shadows are. So they represent the realiy of the innocently uneducated, and the other way of looking at things for the educated.
Well I think that the pain is something that everyone feels when staring at the sun, you do go blind if you stare at it too much. However I think that Plato adds a higher emphasis on how much it hurts someone who has been in the darkness for so long
The reason that the light burns a person when they look directly into it is because the light is the "complete good" and that is hard to bear all at once. It would be like if we had to learn our whole life's worth of knowledge in one day of school. How would that feel, I personally feel that it would burn and sear my very body and mind.
im kind of confused about the role of their senses... i know that when they walk outside of the cave their eyes aren't accustomed to the light. "when he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will nto be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities."
Reading through this philosophical piece of Plato, I came to the same conclusion as Carter and Brendan that the prisoners in the cave in general represent the human beings of our society today. As we mature through our childhood and into our adult lives, we grow this mentality that we are trapped in a bubble, a "cave", and at young age, few of us ever wonder what we can find past this cave. Outside this cave is a whole new adventure and experience. This adventure guides us to envision things of good and evil, fantasy and reality.
Figuratively, I think the light is rpresentative of what is new and different to the people of the cave. The light is not a bad or a good thing, yet, it is merely something they have not experienced.
emjay: I think that what he meant by that thing about putting knowledge into a maind is that you cannot merely stuff knowledge into someone. They have to have some prior idea about what is happening and understand that the one who is stuffing them full of knowledge is doing. Also I think that if one dosn't believe that they want to be taught ten a teache cannot teach them, like if a blind person dosent understand what it is like to see, then they may not be open to seeing.
That would be "representative" in my last comment, my bad.
In response to Emjay's question of the comparison between knowledge and sight, I see Plato's comment upon this very true. When he says taht a professor cannot put knowledge into a soul which was not there before, as Emjay commented, it is not the actual knowledge that must be there, it's the desire and willingness and passion to obtain that knowledge. It is the same way for a blind person. They cannot obtain sight back into the eyes, but they can obtain a drive and passion to heighten other senses in order to compensate for their handicap.
Except Jessie,from what teachers and other students have told me, I dont know if Wikipedia is a valid source for such philosophical material. Apparently users on Wikipedia can manipulate and change the content on the website, but this is just a rumor I have heard, so I have no idea.
When Ms. Mcbride gave us this piece to read she said that if we didn't understand the idea of the story we should draw a picture of the cave. I understand it very well, but before I had this undertanding of it, I tried to drew it out and it didn't help me at all. why did she tell us to draw it out?
Great analogy Ale! I think your reference to Trig is an excellent representation of how it is for prisoners to leave the cave and experience a new form of light.
thanks sam! youre a life saver. :) so, yes it does help.
Yes carter i see that as a great possibility. It is this very building we call school that really funnels us out into the open world where we experience new things in life that we have never heard of.
Jake I think a good response to your question would be the example of teachers and other educators in our society. They went through their own education and own schooling, and now they are teaching us and providing an education for others.
The cave seems to be a portrayal of many differing opinions, although if I were to translate one meaning into modern day terms I would pose the cave as the U.S.. It seems to me that within the U.S. we are more sheltered than any other country in the world. We could say the imprisoners who keep us in the cave are the government officials. Inside the U.S. we live lives pertaining to usually nothing greater than our countrie's affairs, we hardly ever venture out into the world unless its to a five star resort in Mexico. Those of us who do seek to understand problems outside of our country are considered strange and sometimes dillusional. When the person returns to our country with precise views and direct accounts of world affairs unhampered by the media we tend to shun him and treat him like an outcast. Just like the residing cave prisoners did to their fellow companions. Like the prisoners we would rather concentrate only on our countrie's affairs than worry about any other part of the world no matter how great the suffering.
It seems that when the slaves are released from the cave they experience feeling they had never even imagined to exist. This revelation could pertain to many scenarios such as puberty, college, military service, and even religion or politics.
Once these unimaginable feelings are felt and the slave or person is returned to his former dwelling he would be shunned and all respect would be lost as in the cave scenario. This could be for several reasons the main one being that, "Men would say of him that he went up and down he came without eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending;". This quote shows how those who have never experienced certain feelings would rather draw back within their residences then attempt to understand and contemplate the new information.
Once the person has felt the outside world and been returned, he will feel superior to all those who have can not understand his feelings. The exact opposite will happen with the normal residences, they will believe the returned person to be crazy and will all feel superior to him in that they are all content with their home and belive themselves to understand their unchanging environment with perfect clarity.
TO EVERYONE:
The light outside the cave is salvation.
Like when a new born sees the light for the first time...who ever accepts the truth in his heart is BORN AGAIN. He will "suffer the sharp pains " because he will be judged harshly. He will be ridiculized.
when you come back into the cave you feel pity for the people inside it because they haven't discovered true love. However it is their duty to come back and teach those who haven't seen the light yet.
In the allegory plato says that when they come back to the cave some may doubt again about the light and will question which one is true. the shadows? or the real light outside?
This allegory cannot possibly refer to the process of achieving maturity because you do not go back and feel pity for little kids. On the contrary you envy them because their life is so beautiful, painless and easy. You wish you had their innocence. HOwever, you do go back and feel pity for people who are slaves of work, and material things.
ANd who can be a real teacher? Someone who truly believes. Someone who has pure faith. If someone doubts of his own believes he cannot spread the knowledge.
I hope I didn't leave anything out.
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