Plato Study Questions

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


2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?3. What are some things the allegory suggests 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?
5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?



Answers:
- The allegory represents the development and differences between showing the ambiguity and dull sense of knowledge through staying in the norm and the enlightening light of the outside knowledge. This representation shows the value of knowledge and faults of ignorance.

- The shadows that are seen reflecting off the torch are images that depict the fake reality of the prisoners in the cave. The prisoners had only ever known the images of darkness and the comfortable feel of the cold stone, that is why the light poses to be a ping of irritation for the prisoner's and the idea of uncomfortable realization.

- That in order to advance yourself in all aspects, first you must learn to discover the uncomfortable, and find things that are new and creative. Learning and enlightenment are two of the same process. That is why it is important for the prisoners to delve into things they don't know, instead of things they do.

- The shackles represent the bond of the prisoners to the cave. The mind set that they will not get free from the place they are. The cave encompasses the prisoners, leaving everything outside it unknown to them, and the potential of their knowledge of anything else remaining confined to the cave.

- As talking about earlier in this class, the media can shackle your mind and make you think one sided on any topic if you do not pay enough attention to the other sources. I've been told that there is little truth in each article, but if you look enough you will be able to pick out your own version of the truth.

- The freed prisoner understands what is to earned, while the cave prisoners know nothing about what is outside of the cave, they don't think it is an opportunity for enlightenment.

- You can be given the chance to experience the light and shy away or you can never be exposed at all.

- The prisoners are freed by themselves, and there must be realization of the prisoners to spark curiosity. Intellectual freedom should be sought out by the individual, and if the individual desires for intellectual freedom are not sprung, then that person would find no need to be different or an intelligent individual from all of the people surrounding him/her.

- I partly agree. Appearances can be decieving, but they aren't always so. Sometimes appearances give a perfect portrayal of the truth and there is no distinction. Other times, with more complex matters, reality is much deeper than its outward appearance and one much dig deeper to find true meaning.

- That someone could say one thing and do another, or that you can do one thing and say another.