Plato

Key words:

• Cave analogy
• World of Particulars
• World of Forms
• Enlightenment
• Dualist
• A priori

• Group of prisoners have been chained to a wall their entire lives
• Only see a series of shadows of people talking, moving around and carrying objects cast by the light from a fire - they believe this is reality
• One prisoner escapes
• Experiences pain and confusion at the brightness of the sinlight and the reality he experiences - comes to accept reality as it is
• Goes back to tell other prisoners but struggles to see in the darkness of the cave after the light of the outside world - causes other prisoners to mock him
• He no longer cares about the shadows as he understands how the world really is - this turns the other prisoners against him

• Cave - the visible, physical world around us. Appears more real than the World of Forms
• Prisoners - 'ordinary people' who are decieved and ignorant of what is real
• Shadows - illusions created by our senses which cannot access reality
• Journey of the Prisoner - journey of the philosopher who is dazzled by the light (knowledge).
• Chains - the inability to free oneself from the illusions of the senses
• Sun - the Form of the Good (highest Form)
• Return of the Escaped Prisoner - the enlightened philosopher interacting with other people

• Challenges what we believe
• Illustrates the difficulties philosophers and those with opposing views have to face
• Has various layers of meaning that link to the Theory of Forms
• Descriptive imagery
• Helps develop others' ideas
• Relevant

• Logical issues - why are people holding puppets up? who keeps the fire burning? why does only one prisoner escape?
• Plato assumes that everyone is given the same knowledge
• Elitist
• Gender bias

• conceptual
• objective
• eternal
• non-physical
• perfect
• rational
• transcendant
• reality
• intelligible
• illuminated [by the Form of the Good]

• corruptible
• subjective
• finite
• material
• imperfect
• appearances [of the Forms]
• opinions [formed by our unreliable senses]
• sensible
• physical
• changing

• Based within reason
• Moral foundations
• Hopeful for a perfect world that can be reached by the soul
• Relatable - our world is imperfect

• Doubtful and pessimistic - aren't we good enough?
• Unchanging nature of the WoF isn't relatable - where is humanity's place in such a world?
• How does the WoF account for new inventions and developments?
• What does perfection and goodness actually mean?
• Theory created in protest of a government that suppressed and punished alternative thinking, yet Plato is pushing his views on and claiming those who disagree are ignorant and unenlightened