allegory of the cave

Allegory of the CaveWarning:Mind may explode.

FirstClear your mind. Forget everything we have learned in this class. All you need to do right now is to think about what you hear.

What is real?How do we know what is real?What is knowledge what is the value of knowledge?What kind of government should we have?

VocabularyAllegory: A symbolic story

Enlightened freed from ignorance and misinformation.

Marionette a puppet worked from above by strings attached to its limbs.

Converse: Talk

Read the first 2 paragraphs and draw exactly what you read.

And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:—Behold! human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.

I see.

And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.

In the story one of the prisoners escapes, he is able to turn his head and for the first time he sees not just a shadow but the real objects. His mind cannot comprehend this at first.

Later that prisoner exits the cave and sees not just the real objects in the cave, but the actual world. Again he has a very hard time understanding everything at first because it is all new to him.

Eventually he returns to the cave and tries to tell the other prisoners what he saw but they do not believe him because all they have EVER seen is shadows

Plato and Socrates believed that the people that should lead society are the people that have escaped from the cave and have seen the outside. These ideas influence us today and this is why we do not vote directly for things. Instead we elect politicians that govern for us. For example members of Congress, School board, etc.

In your day to day life, who do you think you are in this story?●Can you see the sunlight? ●Do you think you are outside of the cave?●Is anyone in society truly outside of the Cave?●How do you exit the cave?●If you are out how do you know?●If you are out who is left inside?●What obligation do those have that see more to

those who see less?

What do you notice about this image?

What is wrong with this map