Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
- The Allegory of the Cave represents what we believe is our reality and when we are taken out of what we know and what is our reality we are confused and lost.




2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
- The darkness is used to represent the reality in which the prisoners live in while the light represents the unknown world they have been deprived of. 




3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
- I believe the allegory suggests that by stepping out of your comfort zone and doing something different we can learn new things.





 
4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
- The shackles and the cave represent the walls and restraints that confide people. The shackles are restricting the movement of the prisoners so they can only see what is right in front of them. The cave is like their comfort zone it is all they know and they never leave it.




5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
- I believe that people are the shackles to your mind. When you have a large amount of people telling you that you can't do something at some point you are going to believe that you can't do it and you are going to give up.



6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
- Unlike the cave prisoners, the freed prisoner is able to see things the cave prisoners can't like the sun. This leads him into the world of imagination as he is able to imagine what other things may be out in the world. Before the freed prisoner escaped, he would never have imagined something so bright like the sun existed. The cave prisoners still believe in only the shadows because it is the only thing they have ever known.  


7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
-Lack of clarity can occur when one simply doesn't know of any other possibilities. If someone is taught one thing all their lives and someone suddenly tells them they are wrong or there are other possibilities, how could they have known that in the first place? Intellectual confusion can occur when you are trying to explain something to someone they didn't even know existed. 




 8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
- The cave prisoners can get free if they simply just try to escape. This tells us that in order to do something new you need to step out of your comfort zone. Though it may be scary at first, that one decision can hold a million different  opportunities. 




9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
- I agree with this statement. In the allegory, the cave prisoners only saw the appearances of the shadows on the walls. In reality, those shadows were different things like animals and people. 




10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
- One assumption could be that everything you see is indeed what it appears be and nothing else. Another assumption could be that all the things you know of are the only things that exist in the world.