Presentation - PLATO Book VII The Allegory of the Cave

(Click on blog title to be taken to a trailer for the Matrix)



• “In the knowable realm, the form of the good is the last thing to be seen, and it is reached only with difficulty.” (1135)
- How is “good” defined by Socratese?
- If We consider the disk – what is the truth of it? If we consider what’s on the disk?
- (Which pill does Neo choose in the Matrix? Which would you chose? Why? Just curiosity? Or for an honest desire for truth?)

• “...But he'll take into consideration whether it has come from a brighter life and is dimmed through not having yet become accustomed to the dark or whether it has come from greater ignorance into greater light and is dazzled by the increased brilliance.” (1135)
- In the film - Neo's eyes hurt because he's never used them before.
- We strain to understand a new concept, we follow a process of refutation before acceptance.

• “The Power to learn is present in everyone's soul... Education takes for granted that sight is there but that it isn't turned the right way.” (1136)
- It’s not just that “it’s a matter of angles,” but that we have to choose to understand before we actually can. Remember how Neo had to choose whether or not he wanted to know what the Matrix really was.

• “...compels the soul to use understanding itself on the truth itself?” (1142)
- When does understanding take place?
- How does understanding extend passed mathematics, geometry and astronomy?

• “The first section knowledge, the second thought, the third belief, and the fourth imaging. The last two together we call opinion, the other two, intellect. Opinion is concerned with becoming, intellect with being” (1149)

• “because no free person should learn anything like a slave. forced bodily labor does no harm to the body, but nothing taught by force stays in the soul. “ (1151)

• “The case of a child brought up surrounded by much wealth and many flatterers in a great and numerous family, who finds out when he has become a man that he isn't the child of his professed parents and that he can't discover his real ones… We hold from childhood certain convictions about just and fine things; we're brought up with them as with our parents, we obey and honor them.” (1152-53)
- Is this always true? How much does Plato rely on the strict borders between black and white, good and bad?
- Can reality truly be defined if it is based on perception?

Also, check out this cartoon.
http://www.monica.com.br/ingles/comics/piteco/welcome.htm