Myth of the Cave?\' Why

¶ … myth of the cave?' Why does the author of this myth suggest that we are like the prisoners in the cave? What is the point of the myth?

One of the most influential minds in western philosophy is that of Plato. Plato lived from 422-347 B.C, and was born into an aristocratic family in the city of Athens where he became a student of Socrates, and eventually a teacher of Aristotle. Plato followed the basic ideas of Socrates, in which no laws are to be broken despite their relevance. He makes clear why laws should be followed and why disobedience to the law is rarely justified. This theme of law, self-actualization, and justification of responses, resources, and human thought would run through all of Plato's works (Plato, intro).

One of the most interesting of Plato's premises is told through Book VII of his Republic, one of his greatest philosophical and moral treatises. Book VII, better known to modern readers as the "Allegory of the Cave," expresses Plato's philosophical view on reality vs. belief, and the rubric one must undergo to achieve actualization or enlightenment. Plato's preferred method of expressing philosophical concepts was through dialogues, finding that the interplay between individuals, or groups, allegorically responded best to his views of "if not x, then y." Plato believed that education is only directing student's minds towards what is important and real. For people to achieve enlightenment they have to not only comprehended, but actualize, things for themselves. Plato was a positivist in that he believed in evolutionary progression towards the good. The best societies, then, are those ruled by the wise -- the truly enlightened, and who are on the path towards the positive (Heidegger and Sadler).

Plato's allegory of the cave in the Republic is a symbolic story of how a philosopher is compelled to educate his soul by grasping the form of the good. Once this is achieved, it is his role to enlighten others. In the allegory, Plato's theory of forms and the two-world theory are introduced, specifically using metaphor and allusion. In fact, the allegory is one of the primary examples of Plato's dualist theory in which the metaphysical and the epistemological are intertwined to question knowledge and what is real, what is perception, and what is falsehood (Huard). Humans, for Plato, are like the prisoners in the cave. Their reality is limited to what they perceive as real, without understanding or knowing that there is an entire other life (reality) in the "light" -- a symbol for a life uncluttered by perception and open to new and wonderful possibilities. Removing the chains allows the prisoners to move into the light, however reluctantly. Removing our metaphorical chains allows us to move into the light of knowledge.

What are the three main fields of philosophy? List them and indicate the sort of questions that these three branches address.

For most scholars, the three major branches of philosophy are metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics, with a number of subdivisions underneath. Each also overlaps one another, with the very basic premise being different approaches to the study of fundamental human issues: existence, knowledge, values, reason, mind, language, and what ifs. There are, of course, other ways to study and address these problems, but the philosophical approach is self-critical, and based on a series of rational arguments. One scholar notes:

Philosophy is rationally critical thinking, of a more or less systematic kind about the general nature of the world (metaphysics or theory of existence), the justification of belief (epistemology or theory of knowledge), and the conduct of life (ethics or theory of value). Each of the three elements in this list has a non-philosophical counterpart, from which it is distinguished by its explicitly rational and critical way of proceeding and by its systematic nature. Everyone has some general conception of the nature of the world in which they live and of their place in it. Metaphysics replaces the unargued assumptions embodied in such a conception with a rational and organized body of beliefs about the world as a whole. Everyone has occasion to doubt and question beliefs, their own or those of others, with more or less success and without any theory of what they are doing. Epistemology seeks by argument to make explicit the rules of correct belief formation. Everyone governs their conduct by directing it to desired or valued ends. Ethics, or moral philosophy, in its most inclusive sense, seeks to articulate, in rationally systematic form, the rules or principles involved (Quinton 666).

As noted, within each specific branch, there are different paradigms and a different set of approaches to seminal phiosophical issues.

Epistemology -- is the philosophy of knowledge and, as such, focuses on questions like: "what is knowledge," "how do we know what we know," "is what we know real," "how to we receive and understand knowledge?" Because epistomology is concerned with how we know what we know, it is quite openended, yet almost all major philosophers have written something on the subject. Examples of writings that focus on epistomology are: Locke an Essay Concerneing Human Understnading; Kant Critique of Pure Reason, and Descartes Meditations.

Ethics - Ethics as a concern of what is good and evil, moral and imoral, and the way humans have the capacity for the positive and negative, has been part of human culture since Mesopotamia. It asks us to consider how we judge right from wrong, and whether morality is situationally, societally (culturally) or universally based. Classic works on ethics include: Plato the Republic, Aristotle Nichomachean Ethics, and Nietzsche Beyond Good and Evil.

Metaphysics -- Metaphysics seems to surround the larger questions -- the so-called "big" philosophical debates: "Is there a God?" "Why are we here?" "What is the purpose of the universe?" Metaphysics wants to discover what the universe is really made of, what is matter, what is substance, and what is the basis of consciousness. Metpahysics is often criticized as being too abstract, too ethereal, and without any practical value. Works include Aristotle Metaphysics, most of Leibniz, and Spinoza's Ethics (Cross)

Why was Socrates put on trial? How did he defend himself at the trial. Explain what he meant when he said "the unexamined life is not worth living."

We understand most of what we know about the trial of Socrates through the writings of his student, Plato. -- One of the most astonishing things about the chronicle of Socrates' trial in Plato's Apologia is that, on trial for his life in 399 B.C., Socrates seems to both defend himself and his ideas quite vigorously; but almost pushed the judges to find him guilty. Since technology did not exist to record his words, we must rely on really two pieces of evidence, two Apologia (or explanation/defense) -- one by Plato, student of Socrates, the other by Xenophon, friend of Socrates but not a philosopher. The charges were simple, yet complex: corrupting the minds of Athenian youth.

It is odd that since there was no public or State Prosecutor, and that the charges against Socrates were brought by citizens of Athens to be judged by other citizens of Athens, that Plato might be allowing some alliterative devices to organize predispositions to the reader. For instance, the name of one of his prosecutors, Meletus, means "the person who cares," which is a bit of a satirical phrase considering the case. Indeed, the case stood on three major pieces of "evidence": 1) Anytus appears on behalf of the craftsmen and politicians (23e-24a), who are upset because Socrates notes that virtue cannot be taught and many progeny of great Athenians are subpar to their fathers; 2) Meletus appears on behalf of the poets, who are upset at Socrates' continued critique of their vapid nature, and; 3) Lycon, who appears as a mouthpiece of the professional rhetoricians who are upset because Socrates is critical of less than professionalism when using rhetoric as a tool (Brickhouse).

Thus, the evidence against Socrates seems massive -- almost every individual Guild in Athens has a problem with him. What is his defense? Only that he, as a philosopher, seeks the truth by asking questions that some might consider inappropriate because they neither have the answer nor understand the question. The legacy, then, of the Trial, and perhaps one reason Socrates knew he might be stronger in death than life, was his method of inquiry, still used today -- the Socratic Method. This method -- Socrates' real meaning to the idea of examining one's own life; epitomizes his point; without inner questioning, one's life is not worth living (Garlikov).

What is existentialism? How does existentialist theory portray human existence? What is their position of human nature?

As a philosophy, a simple definition of existentialism is a philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness and isolation of the individual experience in a hostile or indifferent universe. It regards human existence as unexplainable. In addition, it stresses freedom of choice and responsibility for the consequences of one's act. Existentialism attempts to describe the desire to make rational decisions despite existing in an irrational universe (Ankrom). Existentialism takes the human subject -- the holistic human, and the internal conditions as the basis and start of the conceptual way of explaining life. Taking idealism From Descartes, Kant, and Hegel, then building upon it, existentialist thinkers strip away the external and look at questions that surround human existence, and the conditions of that existence, rather than hypothesizing or dreaming of different forms of being. Thus, the inward philosophical emotions, angst, dread, self-doubt, self-esteem, etc. are experiences of the historical process, and the process of learning and moving through "existence" into a less fragile, more concrete, way of self-actualization. The existentialist concept of freedom is the manner in which internal values are set and interact with external historical trends. Rather than humans being primarily rational, they make decisions when and if they find meaning (Solomon)