Allegory of the Cave Questions

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
The allegory of the cave represents the search for knowledge and things unknown to people. The struggle for people to get out of their own comfort zone and learn from "the outside."

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
Key parts of imagery were the shadows, the cave, and the sun. The shadows represented the reality that the prisoners had imagined, the cave represented their own shelter world, and the sun represented the outside world and unknown knowledge.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
Education and enlightenment can seem new and scary at first, but are very rewarding and freeing in the end.

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
The prisoners believed that their world may have been better than what could be on the outside, but the shackles make it obvious that the outside is seen in a very positive light in the mind of Plato.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
Only a person's own mental state can shackle their mind, and I firmly believe in this concept.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The freed prisoner got the enjoy and experience a whole new world than the prisoners inside the cave, and even though scary at first, was definitely the right decision.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
The two ways that Plato describes were going into the light, and exciting the light. Entering a world of new and free opportunities, and getting stuck into a world in which you know of too well already.

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The prisoners only get out with the help of other prisoners, which suggests that we need others in order the be intellectually free.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Yes, appearances and reality are different, and yes they are the same. The perception that you have of others becomes your own personal reality, yet when you realize that their reality has something to offer yours, there new appearance is part of your reality. Really a complex subject.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
That each person both has their own reality, as their own appearance to others.