Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
It represents  "the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world," or the journey from false beliefs to Enlightenment.  

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The Fire, the Cave, and the Shadows.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
That some people's minds are more open to it, but you can not fill the mind but instead point it in the right direction toward Enlightenment.

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
They have a negative connotation; the tone of the words suggests that they are trapped and uncomfortable. This suggests that the perspective of the cave prisoners is trapped, or chained, in their old way of thinking and that they can not easily escape their reality.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
In a way the public education system does, as well as our own human insecurities. People are too afraid to stray from the track that society has taught them is "right" in fear of no longer fitting in with their peers. In my life I think it is the fear of being wrong that kind of "shackles my mind" in a way.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The freed prisoner is now less comfortable in their view of the world because they are no longer sure if it is the "true" view. The cave prisoners are still in the darkness and do not have a fear of what lies outside their cave because their cave is all they know.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The cave prisoners become free when they want to, which suggests that we are in control of our own education. We are only as constricted as we let ourselves believe we are.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
I agree very much with this. You can see something to be a certain way when you are standing at a certain perspective but the way it truly is can be completely different. If you are trapped by a small level of experience, you will not be able to see things as they really are because you do not have the knowledge to analyze them, only to take them in.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?