Allegory of the Cave

D. Montoya

Vocabulary

1. abash2. abate3. abject4. abyss5. acute

In Class Freewrite

• What is wisdom?

Plato Socrates Aristotle

Socrates

• Socrates was born in the mid 400's B.C • Taught philosophy and taught Plato. Before 400 B.C.• Began questioning Athenian values, laws, customs,

and religion. • Brought to trial and found guilty of treason to the

gods. He was sentenced to death.• His teachings were written down by his student,

Plato.• He was the first to make a clear distinction between

the body and soul, placing a higher value on the soul.

Plato

• One of the most famous Greek philosophers, was born in Athens.

• In 403 B.C., democracy was restored to Athens. Plato then tried to get involved in politics, but was repelled again when his friend and teacher Socrates was sentenced to death in 399 B.C.

• Plato left Athens after Socrates was killed. He returned in 387 B.C., and founded a school of philosophy called the Academy.

• It was considered the first university by many people.

Aristotle• When he was 18, he attended the Academy, where he was a

student for 20 years.• Known as "the intelligence of the school" and "reader". • Alexander the Great studied under Aristotle until his father,

King Philip, was assassinated and he became king of Macedonia.

• Aristotle returned to Athens in 334 B.C. and founded the Lyceum, a school of philosophy.

• He and his followers were called "peripatetic", which means "walking around". Aristotle taught while he was walking. After Alexander the Great died in 323 B.C.

• Aristotle was charged with impiety, which was a lack of reverence for the gods, by the Athenian people..

Plato’s Beliefs

• Plato wanted to achieve aretê, or excellence. He saw two threats within the polis.

• Democracy: Empowered ignorant people• Sophist’s false teachings- that nothing is permanent,

values are relative, and knowledge is impossible.

In the hands of philosophers

• To change society, ideas should be placed in the hands of Philosophers.

• The Republic describes Plato’s ideal state (a small elite should rule, trained in philosophy, devoting their lives to the citizens’ happiness, living without property or families.

How can we measure the goodness of life?

• You must know what good, just, and beautiful are, before setting out to live a good, just and beautiful life.

• “Justice,” is a timeless, eternal thing.• We cannot see the true forms of justice,

goodness, and beauty because they exist in another invisible realm, but they are more real than anything in our experience.

Good

Reality is unchanging and knowable only through the mind.

E.g.: How can we say that a particular bottle of California chardonnay “is a good wine” and that Bob Dylan “is a good songwriter,” unless both-wine and songwriting-share an invisible and eternal quality of goodness?

E.g.: No one ever saw a square root to two, but it exists and will always exist, independent of the sensual world.

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”

• Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” appears in Book VII of his most famous and influential philosophical dialogue, The Republic.

An Allegory• An allegorical writing is the type of writing having

two levels of meanings: literary and allegorical meanings.

• A literary meaning is the content or the subject matter and allegorical meaning is the symbolic or metaphorical suggestion.

• In allegorical writing characters, actions and

setting are used as symbols and they should be interpreted to make the allegorical meaning.

• Make a list of features of the story that are allegorical.

• Produce a table showing the features and their meaning.

Discussion Questions

• Would you want to be released from the cave? Why or why not?

• What is like the cave in our world?• How is the way you understand the world, your ideas and

beliefs, shaped by the actions of others?• Who has the power to shape your ideas and beliefs? In

what ways is this good and in what ways is it not so good?• Are there things you know to be true? What are they, and

how do you know them?• What is Plato trying to tell us in the allegory?

HW: Due Monday/Tuesday