Plato's Allegory of the Cave (Week 2)

This is not the "All Plato All The Time" class, I promise, but we can't move on from Plato until we explore the Allegory of the Cave.

Class Recap

You were each asked to bring in a photo of the cave as homework, I gave no other direction beyond that except to say that the topic of class was going to be 'Reality'.

After defining an allegory (a simple story that has a deep meaning under the surface),

everyone was asked to sit on the floor facing the corner. I narrated the following to the class and asked that you try hard to imagine this set up that you are living in:

Imagine living your entire life in an underground cave your feet and hands are bound to the floor you are sitting on. You have been here since childhood and you are facing a wall, behind you is the cave opening your back is to it.

Above and behind you a fire is blazing on a raised walk way. The way the fire is set makes it so you see shadows of the people passing by, animals, wood piles, some of them talk, some of them silent, some of them making noises that you do not understand. To you the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images, a shadow of a duck would be a real duck to you

One of the prisoners escapes, the prisoner is not supposed to leave or be let go of. The escaped prisoner finds the way out hard and uncomfortable. Her feet are bloodied and she barely survives the journey.

She finally reaches the outside world and for the first time she sees a duck it is not longer just a flat shadow it is a real duck with dimension.

She looks straight into the sun but it hurts her eyes, but she keeps looking anyway because after living in darkness for so long feeling that sun on her face is the best feeling she has ever felt.

All of a sudden the escapee starts to think about all the people still living in the dark, disgusting cave. She can't wait to tell them all about life outside the cave. As she goes back into the cave her eyes are so sore as the sun really strained them, but she finds the trip back into the cave easy aside from her eyes. She tell all the prisoners that she was chained with what it is like outside of the cave. The prisoners want to hear nothing of her tales, they tell her to shut up, they tell her to stop telling tales, they trap her and pull her back to her place and stone her until she is silent.

Right after telling the story I handed out paper and asked you each to draw your interpretation of the cave. This was not a time to discuss the meaning behind the story, only to process silently your thoughts and feelings about the allegory.

After spending some time drawing I opened the floor to discussion with the understanding that each question I asked I wanted to know the hidden meaning to the allegory: (I am listing some of the class answers in red)

1. Who is in the cave? Limited understanding, only knowing parts of the truth

2. What is in the cave? people who let society dictate they thoughts

3. Where are these people in the cave?people living a life without thinking

4. What is going on in the cave? Prejudice - pinning all people into one group, some religion, living without education and wonder, thinking you know everything

5. Can this cave be applied to the modern day setting? Yes, people still live like this all the time, some religious fanatics, politicians

6. What does the sun represent? Real truth, the desire to know more

7. What does the returned prisoner's desire to lead the out the represent? The desire to share what she has learned with others

8. Why is the path out of the cave so hard, and the return so easy? Gaining knowledge is a lot of work, slipping back is easy, it is easy to be lazy

9. Why do you think the other prisoners killed the one who returned? Opposing thought is hard to take, Plato wanted the reader to see how crazy it is to live without thinking

Quote of the Week:

The unexamined life is not worth living

-Socrates

Extra links and Food For Thought

Allegory of Plato's Cave Text - this is worth the read!

Homework for week #3 - none

Topic Hint - Aristotle and Friends

The Original Trouble Makers and Ethics

Welcome Philosophers!

Class Recap: Week 1 - Ethics, Ethics, Ethics

Intro

We started out week one with the age old question, what is philosophy? This question has plagued philosophers for ages and has yet to have a concrete answer. However, we do know this, the word philosophy literally means 'love of wisdom' and that is what we are running with for this class.

We also briefly discuss the dawn of Western Philosophy, and what is was like to live in the party central Greece during Plato's life time. Plato and Socrates were not loved by the Greek rule makers and were considered huge trouble makers.

It was brought up right away that some of you felt you have been philosophers your entire life but you never had a name for it. After more back and forth about the meaning of philsophy and why you each found it important to study we dove right into values, also know as ETHICS.

The Big Questions of the Week:

What makes you a fair and just person?

Is justice concrete and easy to explain?

Should you be just to your enemy as well as your friends?

Can you be unjust to yourself?

The Set Up:

#1 You borrow your friends calculator, and he asks for it back, what do you do?

Most of you said you would give it back because it is only fair, the caluculator does not belong to you.

#2 Your parents borrow a weapon from a friend. During that time your parent's friend goes insane. Do you give it back?

This is where the big back and forth started. We talked about Plato's definition of justice and which he found easy to define, his definition of justice, in essence : treating other people fairly.

Many of you did not agree with Plato's definition of justice, most of you expressed that his view is too narrow and cannot be used in every situation. Plato's definition of justice, in short is simply, to be just is to be fair. You guys generated some awesome discussions and at the same time were very respectful of each other.

The likelihood that we will all agree on everything in class is slim, and this is what makes the class so fun.

Quote of the Week:

"If we all had hinges on our heads

There wouldn't be no sin.

'Cause we could take the bad stuff out

And leave the good stuff in"

Shel Silverstien

Key Words:

Ethics: (also known as moral philosophy) is a branch of philosophy which seeks to address questions about morality; that is, about concepts such as good and bad, right and wrong, justice, and virtue.

Fast Facts:

Socrates 469-399BC

*Known for teaching through discussion of ideas, using questions to challenge students' assumptions about the world

*Learning how little we know is how we learn

*Never wrote anything down, no written works

*Sentenced to death by hemlock for corrupting the young of Greece

Plato 428-348BC

*Student of Socrates

*Started his own university, "The Academy"

*Focus on ideas as truth

*Felt the physical world is misleading, and we should not base all our ideas on it

*Believed people were born with knowledge, and gained more knowledge as they lived