Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
The allegory of the cave talks about ignorance and enlightement and different paths. One path is to become a philosopher who is knowledgeable about the world around him. With the other is to be a prisoner who remains clueless excpet for the familar world around him.

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The cave itself, prisoners, light/darkness, and the shadows.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
The process to enlightment or greater education can be hard. Being a prisoner or stuck in the school system you are always taught that someone is here to hold your hand and that you will be given a treat for something that you have done right. When are hands are let go we just want to stay in our comfort zone until we learn to step out of our cave and be accostumed to the light.

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
The shackles and cave could represent people who are stuck in a ceratin way fo life. Through this they become ignoarnt and once they are let go they can become lost.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
The shackles in my own life I feel can be parents. Parents tend to try to keep you in a small world that nothing bad will happen. As you grow older your parents tend to realize that they need to let go. Once we are given that freedom we have to choose whether to stay in the comfort of our parents or to continue your own journey.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The freed prisoner is able to pick up a new sense of reality and learns to keep an open mind of what he did not know before. The cave prisoners have not had been freed so they are still kept close minded only knowing the shawdows on the walls.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
The prisoners what able to make of the shawdows on the wall so they did not really know what they are looking at. While this is happening another context could be that by not being to make clear of the reality around them they are not able to recieve an open mind and learn new things.

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?

The prisoners are lead out the outside world. This sugests that no matter where you are it is up to you where you find the knowldge that you want to gain. There is so much that can be learned.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
There is no distinction between appearance and reality becuase you are never really sure what you are looking at. You can look at something different than the person next to you. 

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
I think alternatives is our level of education and our minset. Dependind on our level of education we can see reality different that to a 6 year old. As a 17 I think of what college to go to and that is my reality at the moment while a 6 year old is passing the multplication table test. Also our mindset can determine what we wan to accept as reality and what we want to think is real.