Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1.According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?

- The allegory of the cave represents being in the darkness. The unknown if you will. It is simply lost with no worldly help.

2.What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
  -Key elements used in this allegory include the wall, the dark, the sun burning and irritating the slave. And so forth.   3.  What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or            education?

- The allegory suggests " the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed. " about the process of enlightenment or education.

4.What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

-imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners that they are lost. They do not know about the world because they have been trapped since childhood. Shackles on the mind. Forbidden to learn.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

 - I believe that as one of the most powerful nations, (USA), it's mind shackling that as we are slowly decreasing in power that we remain at peace. I know that sounds intense and brutal but to increase in power and we need to take control of resources, then trade with other countries, as well as bring back the goods to the USA. Just as Great Britain did way back when and they still get resources from places like India and Africa.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

-Freed Prisoner : Able to learn...explore...breathe in new life where as a Cave Prisoner knows not. Never able to learn beyond where he lies. Not because he does not want to but because he is being forced beyond control.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?

-According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. They are "I mean to say that objects of sense are of two kinds; some of them do not invite thought because the sense is an adequate judge of them; while in the case of other objects sense is so untrustworthy that further enquiry is imperatively demanded.

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?

-Prisoners get free "But the release of the prisoners from chains, and their translation from the shadows to the images and to the light, and the ascent from the underground den to the sun, while in his presence they are vainly trying to look on animals and plants and the light of the sun, but are able to perceive even with their weak eyes the images in the water (which are divine), and are the shadows of true existence (not shadows of images cast by a light of fire, which compared with the sun is only an image) --this power of elevating the highest principle in the soul to the contemplation of that which is best in existence, with which we may compare the raising of that faculty which is the very light of the body to the sight of that which is brightest in the material and visible world --this power is given, as I was saying, by all that study and pursuit of the arts which has been described. "

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

-The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. I agree because hamburgers on tv look a lot better than the actual hamburger.
 
10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?