Thinking Outside the Box

       Plato and Sartre both address limitations to thinking in different ways.  In the allegory, thoughts are confined to a cave.  There is an opening, but the prisoners are chained and prevented from escape.  When they are released from their shackles, they are so accustomed to the darkness that they fear the light.  In No Exit, a similar situation occurs.  They are confined in a room by a locked door.  The door opens open there request.  They stand in apprehension and in the end none of them have the courage to see what is outside.  They know that they cannot handle isolation in the room with the people they are stuck with, yet they fear something worse.  The valet or whoever is in charge of the door seems to call them on their bluff.  Garcin claims he would prefer torture to staying in the wretched room, yet when given the option, he will not leave.  Both authors depict the limitations on thinking exclusively through dialogue.  In the allegory, the dialogue presents the teacher-student aspect that parallels the enlightened-unenlightened situation found in the cave.  In the play, the characters reveal themselves through their speech.  They reveal how they ended up in hell, though it isn't all that important to them.  The dialogue depicts the jockeying for power in a new situation that all sinful people will naturally take part in.  The characters are limited by this type of thinking.  They cannot cooperate.  They rationally decide that silence will be the best for them, but they cannot resist the urge to speak.  They form two-person alliances with one remainder, left for eternity.  But these alliances do not last and they shift  mercurially.  These people would be liberated if they were capable of working for more than themselves.

Plato Sonnet

Plato depicted us, the human race
As prisoners, dwelling in a cave
Accustomed to darkness and adverse to life's grace
Said we needed help to be saved

Shadows are all we know
Until we are released from shackles and chains
And dragged into the light
Crawling and overwhelmed

An escapee would come back
And try to help his friends, left in the cave
But his enlightenment would not be received
And he wouldn't perceive shadows well in the darkness

But the enlightened must try
To save us from the cave

Plato Study Questions

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
The cave represents human beings and their inability to comprehend the truth and reach enlightenment.

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
I felt the key elements were the fire and the sun representing different degrees of enlightenment.  The use of shadows was also prevalent both in and out of the cave.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
The allegory suggests that it takes an enlightened one to help out someone unenlightened, and they may have to "drag" them out of the cave.  It also suggests that the truth can be overwhelming, as is the sun for someone sitting in a cave.

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
The imagery suggests that they are suffering, whether they know it or not.  They are suffering from not being free, their minds are confined.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
Traditions are probably the biggest shackle of the mind.  Traditions and beliefs such as punting on fourth are clung on to and embraced when in reality we should be taking risks and exploring new ideas.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The freed prisoner is both liberated from the cave, yet burdened with responsibility to the other cave prisoners.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
The two ways are from being overwhelmed from too much light or unable to discern because you are accustomed to more light.

8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The prisoners are freed by someone outside the cave.  This suggests that interdependence is key to intellectual freedom.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
I agree  because perceptions are different for every person and not everyone can be correct.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
If Socrates is incorrect, one possibility is that for each individual exists their own reality, and thus their perceptions are correct.  Another, existentialist way of thinking might suggest that there is nothing more to it, that all there is to life is the cave.

We Hang Together

Notes from Dr. Preston's article
Interdependence vs. independence
Independence glamorized by American culture
Interdependence more effective in the long run
Interdependence is reached unintentionally, like with Coke and Pepsi
Should view struggle to attract a resource rather than to fight its absence
Alliances should incorporate human interaction
With independence, the sacrifice towards "something greater than oneself" is lost
Even classic heroes were interdependent- needed father/mother figure, guide, even enemy
For alliance to work a sufficient answer is needed for "what's in it for me?"
Society is becoming more selfish
Less community participation, more divorces!
9/11 response demonstrated power of community support; everyone pitched in for victims

A Poetic Inquiry

I selected the following sonnet to reflect my big question.

Bread and Music

by  Conrad Aiken  (1889-1973)

Music I heard with you was more than music, 

And bread I broke with you was more than bread; 

Now that I am without you, all is desolate; 

All that was once so beautiful is dead.

Your hands once touched this table and this silver, 

And I have seen your fingers hold this glass. 

These things do not remember you, belovèd, 

And yet your touch upon them will not pass.

For it was in my heart you moved among them, 

And blessed them with your hands and with your eyes; 

And in my heart they will remember always, — 

They knew you once, O beautiful and wise.

I tried to tie this in to my big question which was, if you do not remember, was

"How are people capable of finding happiness in destitute conditions, yet are also able to find misery or at least discontent in the most optimal of circumstances?"

    I felt that I thing I may have overlooked when trying to answer this question was the people that you are with.  We draw hope not from our circumstances but rather from the people that are experiencing the situation with us.  In this poem, the narrator still has all the possessions that  were part of his happy life.  But now he is missing a beloved one, and the things feel empty.  Many people suffering are able to push on because of the inspiration of the others suffering with them.  On the other hand, most people who find sorrow in their healthy and wealthy lives see themselves as "all alone."  In a way, the people that have only each other are better off than the ones who have everything else.

Sonnet Analysis #1

Sonnet-"sonneto"- little song in Italian
Sung and performed live
Two types- Patrarchan and Shakespearean sonnets
Patrarchan- octet followed by sextet
Flowery imagery and language
Rhyming more often incorporated, not vital
Shakespeare saw as unrealistic, "no one really talks like that!"
Shakespearean sonnet- 3 quatrains and a couplet

Performative Utterances Essay

Hamlet’s speech elicits actions and causes things to happen throughout the play.  Hamlet’s words have a noticeable effect in his life because he makes promises and commands, demanding a response from his words.  The characters are compelled into action because Hamlet’s words force, persuade, or beguile them.  Hamlet’s words also have an effect on his character.  In my life, self-overhearing is very crucial to my character.  The way I act and talk with some friends and the way I act and talk with others accumulates into my character.  I am reminded of the idea that “thoughts become words, words become actions, actions become habits, and habits become character.”  This idea sums up “self-overhearing.”  What we say will ultimately define us.  In Hamlet, this can be seen in the demands he gives, the promises he makes, and the soliloquies he performs.  Word prove to be a double edged sword that will help receive what you want from others as well as well as change who you are yourself.
When Hamlet tells the actors to perform a play in a way that will reveal to Claudius that he knows his sin, he is using locutionary force.  His words commence a chain of events that will inevitably lead to a conflict between him and Claudius.  People use this roundabout way of reaching conflict all the time.  People go out of their way because subtlety is coveted and respected, and using words to elicit actions rather than simply using actions demonstrates a sort of restraint.  This also adds to the argument that Hamlet is not in fact crazy and is rationally using his words before he commits a reckless action.
There are a couple of oaths that are taken in the play, all of which demonstrate performative utterances and have an effect on the characters.  When Hamlet swears that he will remember his father’s ghost, he has placed a guideline to follow throughout the play.  Note that he does not swear that he will avenge his father, only that he will remember his appearance.  By doing this he gives himself some moral leeway in case he decides that cannot kill.  Had he made the outright promise to avenge his father, there would be no indecisive dilemma and he would have carried out the deed with celerity.  The other instance of oath in the play occurs right after Hamlet makes his oath, when Hamlet makes Marcellus and Horatio swear to secrecy.  This promise is slightly different in that it forbids, rather than obligates one to, an action.  Promises are amongst the most powerful of performative utterances.  Whether they compel someone to do something or not to do something, they hold someone accountable.  After making a promise, one is subject to either follow their words or deal with the hefty consequences of dishonesty.  This is evident in my life.  I expect my friends and family to keep promises, and if they do not, they will have lost my trust.  Inversely, when I make a promise, I am expected to keep it.  For this reason I try make promises that I am not completely committed to.  I have learned that it is best to tread softly with words to prevent being held accountable for simple thoughts and ideas.  One must know when to leave room for doubt with phrases like “I think” or “I predict”; and when to speak boldly to remove doubt from your audience.
Hamlet reveals the most about himself in his soliloquies and this is also where “self-overhearing” has the most profound effect.  The soliloquies are the sole time when Hamlet truly speaks his mind, so naturally “self-overhearing” is most likely to take place.  One could argue that the whole time that Hamlet is playing the charade of a madmen his words subconsciously have a pernicious effect on him, causing him to actually believe that he is actually mad.  To a marginal extent, I believe this may be true.  But I think that ‘self-overhearing” will have a much stronger effect when the character means what he says.  Most people today have a couple of identities. For myself, I have an academic identity, an athletic one, and a social one.  Things I say while in one persona may not truly represent the other facets of me. These words do have an effect on me, though usually being conscious of them will negate this effect.  The words that are genuinely changing are the ones spoken from the heart. When I am perfectly honest with people who I really trust, the words I say do in fact shape my way of thinking.  After saying something aloud, I am much more likely to believe it.  Suddenly it becomes part of my identity.  When Shakespeare wrote for Hamlet to make those soliloquies, I believe that he was doing more than giving the audience a peak into Hamlet’s mind.  I also believe that he was allowing Hamlet’s thoughts vocalize and thus become part of who Hamlet is.  Memorizing “to be, or not to be” involved multiple repetitions of the soliloquy.  Each time it was vocalized, the words made more sense and became more ingrained into my way of thinking.  Through the power pure vocalization and repetition Hamlet’s rationale became inherent to me.  This demonstrates that “self-overhearing” has real and tangible effects on us all.
Shakespeare’s play Hamlet hosts and abundance of examples of performative utterances.  Hamlet’s words define his character when he gives a demand, swears an oath, and speaks his true thoughts.  The effects of “self-overhearing” are evident in my life as well. The act of speaking ingrains ideas into our mindsets and ultimately shapes us into who we are.  Words should be recognized as a tool that when wielded correctly, will serve you well but when used carelessly will come back to cut you.