Plato's Allegory of the Cave

13. If the liberated prisoner goes back to the cave and tries to explain to his former fellow prisoners, what kind of reaction will he get? Why?

He wouldn't like to get back to that misery, he wouldn't be able to put a step in that cave, after he has seen his reality in the outside world who would of life to step back in the darkness.

14. To what extent do you find Socrates point about human tendency to confuse "shadows" with "reality" relevant today?

I agree with Socrates and his point is true until the end relevant today, the example of us being imprisoners of our job, making it our shadow to our reality, and not being able to see the light because we get obsess to do our job with perfection.

2. What are the stages of the liberated prisoner's experience outside the cave?

It is described that first they will suffer from sharp pains, due that since they were chained from childhood without moving their legs or necks. Then they will have pain in their eyes due that they are not use to the light of the sun. They will be pained and irritated.

7. What is truth according to Plato in this allegory?

Knowledge.

16. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?

Plato states "anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light of from going into the light, and judging that the soul maybe affected in the same way, will not give way to foolish laughter when he sees anyone whose vision is perplexed and weak...."

1. Describe how the people in the cave are situated in Plato's parable. Why can't they move their legs or necks to take a look around? What is the only thing they are capable of seeing? What is their only source of light?

The people are in an underground cave, they can't move their legs or necks to take a look around because they chained. The only thing they are capable of seeing is their own shadows. The only source of light they have above and behind them is a fire blazing at a distance.

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

They eventually get released, how this suggest about intellectual freedom, is that we need to release ourselves from our own cave.

4. How do the prisoners react when they first see sunlight? Why?

They react with pain in their eyes, they never have seen the sunlight, and they have being trapped in the cave since their childhood.

15. What could be the elements that prevent people from seeing the truth, or regarding "shadow" as the "truth"?

We trapped ourselves, we don't like the truth. The truth hurts most of the time and is the reason why we prevent ourselves from seeing truth. Pain, we try to avoid even thou when avoiding we just end hurting ourselves even more.

9. How is it possible that people can believe in illusion and accept it as reality?

When a person lives with an illusion their whole life, it comes to a point that it becomes their reality, as the prisoners in the cave they had being chained since childhood so their reality are their own shadow. That happens in life as well, we become so stuck into our illusion that we believe it is true.

21. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Yes it is, sometimes people get misjudged by their appearance without knowing who in reality the one is inside.

17. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

it suggests the pain and suffering.

18. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

our past, we tend to go back to our past instead of moving forward. I tend to do that a lot, and when the past is full of negative memories and horrible steps through life, we seem to get stuck making our past the shadow of our enlightenment.

3. What do these prisoners trapped in the cave believe is real?

they believe their shadows are real.

12. If a prisoner is released from the cave and compelled to look toward the light, what will he experience? Why?

they will feel pain in their eyes, they have being imprisoners in that cave since their childhood.

10. What sometimes happens to people when the illusion is shattered and reality is revealed?

Sometimes there is disappointment, because the illusion is so beautiful that when it is ruined by reality our disappointment kicks immediately.

5. What does Plato's allegory of the cave tell us about how we recognize things?

That everything we see is an illusion.

6. What does Plato's cave tell us about what we see with our eyes?

that what is in front of us is an illusion.

19. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

the freed prisoner are touching their reality, they are engaging their lives to the light, while the cave prisoners are stuck in their shadows.