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.