Assessment 2- SHANAN REA-STUDENT NUMBER 16820932

In Plato's allegory of the cave life is being compared to being chained up inside of a cave.
The prisoners do not know that they are chained and prisoners.
This is stage one of the cave. The cave has four parts

While chained up we are forced to watch shadows on the walls of the cave
They can also hear certain things.
The prisoners perceive these things to be real.
These prisoners represent the majority of human kind
The prisoners of the cave have been confined since birth.
The prisoners have no knowledge of the outside world.
The prisoners are unable to turn their heads.
A fire behind the prisoners gives off a faint light.
People occasionally walk past the fires carrying figures of animals and other objects.
These figures cast shadows upon the wall.
The illusions are named and classified by the prisoners.
The prisoners believe that they are perceiving actual entities.

One of the prisoners is freed and gains access to the outside world for the first time.
This is stage 2 of the cave.
Before leaving the cave he turns around to see people carrying objects in front of the fire
(casting shadows).
He realizes that the familiar world of shadows is actually an illusion created by people in the
background.
He realizes that the shadows are less real than the objects in the background.
This is the jump from appearance to reality.

Stage 3 of the cave is when the former prisoner leaves the cave.
Upon leaving the cave his is blinded by the sunlight.
His eyes adjust and he is able to see objects in his surroundings.
These reality is a higher reality than that in the cave.

He is disorientated by his new surroundings.

He is told that the things around him are real and that the shadows are reflections.
The shadows had previously appeared more clear to him but his eyes adjusted until he could
see his reflection in the water, until he could look at objects directly and until he could see the
sun.
The sun is the source of everything that he had seen.
Stage 4 is when the prisoner is compelled to return to the cave to help those still in prison.
He returns to the cave.
He is eager to share his discovery.
He shares his knowledge of the higher reality but he is mocked.
He is no longer adjusted to the darkness and so he begins to struggle to see the shadows.
He is perceived to be blind and stupid now by the other prisoners.
They believe that his journey has made him that way.
The other prisoners violently resist any attempts made to free them.

Platos communicates that this is what it is like to be a philosopher trying to educate the public.
Ignorance is a comfort to most people and they become hostile when it is pointed out.
We may point out that Socrates was sentenced to death for disrupting the social order with
information.

Plato may be pointing out that most people are too ignorant or stubborn to create order for
themselves.

Plato's allegory of the cave is connected to the theory of forms which is developed in Plato's
other dialogues.
This theory states that things in the real world too are reflections of ideal forms (and they may
be flawed too).
Idea forms may include things like roundness or beauty.
Taking this into account Plato's allegory of the cave leads to many fundamental epistemological
questions.
Such as the origin of knowledge, the problem with representation, and realities nature.
The theory illustrates the problem of grouping concrete things under abstract terms.

The allegory of the cave can be seen as divided.

Below the division is inside the cave.

Above the division is outside of the cave.

Inside the cave represents the physical, visible empirical changing world.

When people engage with the socratic method they leave the physical realm and discover the
non physical invisible intelligible essences of things (the forms) above the line, outside the cave.

The essence is the universal definition.

The form is when we realize that the concept exists outside of our mind.
Its an objective reality that doesn't rely on the mind.

We may use beauty as an example.

If i wasnt to convey beauty i may show you a picture of a beautiful lady.
This picture is actually justs an imitation of a beautiful person.
Then we must acknowledge that the actual beautiful person is just an imitation of the definition
and form of beauty.

The division line referred to us earlier conveys the mindset (the epistemological position of the
people at each stage of education).
At the bottom we have conjecture.
At the next level we have belief.
Then understanding.
Then pure reason.
As you move from childhood to adulthood you move up that line (provided you move up it
properly).

The divided line helps us understand the cave and in general the philosophers journey to
enlightenment.
The general idea is that there is a hidden reality.
There is something higher and more real than the world around you.
Forms are more real because they are eternal and govern all physical things.

The cave illustrates Socrates' theory of education.

The process of education is exiting the cave.
The cave illustrates what happens when we become educated.

Plato's epistemology is also reflected in this allegory of the cave and the divided line, because
we’ve seen that we move from conjecture to belief to understanding to pure reason and then to
a mystical intuitive grasp of the form of the good. His epistemology is that one does not really
know until they can give a sufficient definition (know the form of the thing so that they can
sufficiently define it).
For example. One does not know a triangle by simply being able to identify it, one would need to
be able to define it sufficiently.

Finally, plato's allegory of the cave reflects his ethics.The idea present is that in order to do good
you have to understand the principles of justice.You have to know the good in order to do the
good. You have to know justice in order to really be just.Otherwise one will only practice
imitation of other people which will leave them being just by accident.

Bibliography

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0l2iqfaEao&ab_channel=teachphilosophy
-Paul

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1RWOpQXTltA&ab_channel=TED-Ed
-Alex Gendler