Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
The Allegory of the cave represents everything that inhibits someone from being free.  It is everything that does not allow someone to think for them selves or to practice something else other than the norm. It represents the dogma that many people are trapped in.

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The darkness, shackles, cave, and mentioning of the shadows create an image for the reader. These elements set an area of eeriness and distinct image for the reader. These elements are the symbols for restriction, being naïve and ignorant. The shadows represents everything they do not understand. The sun represents the light and the freedom of being able to think freely.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
It suggest that so many people are so afraid of coloring outside of the lines that they get stuck in dogma all their life. The freed prisoner is the opportunity in the allegory. He is the opportunity that many people in our society refuse to take. The process of enlightenment and education is very long, but if accepted is very rich and fulfilling.

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
The shackles and cave suggest that the prisoners are unable to break away from their routine. They are unable to look past what they are and where they are because all their life they have known nothing but that. The prisoners are naïve and unaware of the world outside of their own little bubbles.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
Structure and being told there is only one answer are the biggest shackles in daily life. For as long as I can remember I have been told to do as the teacher says and to organize my notebook and school work a certain way, the right way. I have been trapped in other people’s opinions or thoughts on something because I have been told that their thoughts are the rights ones. Well, can’t my ideas and thoughts be right too? Many may read this question and say no, but when I look at it I see opportunity to think differently and think yes. Steve Job once said, “Don't be trapped by dogma—which is living with the results of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinions drown out your own inner voice.” The shackles are the opinions of others that drown our own.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
I believe the freed prisoner is struck by the unwillingness of the cave prisoner to leave. He cannot grasp in his head why the cave prisoner would not like to be free. He has forgotten what it was to have a limited, structured, habitual, and dark life.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
One is the outside of the cave. At first there is confusion, but within time freedom is found. Th second is returning into the cave. The ex-prisoner could not grasp how the others can bear stay in the cave. He is isolated and criticized for not being naive/ignorant like them (prisoners).


8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners’ get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
Prisoners get free by breaking away from structure. They get free by leaving behind the cave, by leaving behind whatever inhibits them to be free. This suggests that intellectual freedom allows the person to be more creative and open-minded. It allows a person to free him/her self from habit and structure.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
I believe there is a difference between appearances and reality. An appearance is something seen, but not everything we see is real. The allegory says that knowledge is created by what is real, not by what you see, by the sciences not the senses.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
Metaphysical: relating to things that are thought to exist but that cannot be seen.
The alternative is that people will believe everything they see and everything they see will be a reality for them. The only learning experience would be from what they see.