Background Socrates- character in the dramatic dialogue Plato’s Republic written around 380 BCE Main question: What is Justice Allegory of the Cave occurs in book 7 of Plato’s Republic Plato using Socrates as a vehicle for his own ideas

Background Socrates was tried by the state for corrupting the young men He questioned the nature of Athenian society and conventional acceptance of the state religion. He did this at a time when Athens was weakened by the Peloponnesian Wars and had lost to Sparta

Questions the Republic seeks to answer Is your first duty to civil law or to your conscience? Which is more important? The individual or the state? What are you supposed to do if public and private good clash?

Allegory Characters or events symbolize or stand in for something real 1:1 relationship C.S. Lewis’s The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Lion = Jesus

Socrates tells this story to Glaucon

Socrates tells this story to Glaucon What are the people doing down there? Naming the things that come before them Naming things is a fundamental property of language Attempt to render the world orderly But what they are seeing are shadows of objects representing things in the world

A prisoner is drug up and out of the cave. He doesn’t leave willingly. He is forced out. Eyes need to adjust, finally aware of things and how they look. The sun seems to be the first principle of everything else. When he has seen the truth, he goes back and tries to instruct the prisoners.

Sorting out the Allegory The sun seems to be the first principle of everything else. We are like the people in chains. Who are the people carrying the objects? Who might they be in our society? Who is the person who drags out the prisoner? What does Socrates say the 2 different worlds represent?

What does Socrates say the 2 different worlds represent? World in the cave =sensible world World outside the cave=intellectual world What does this suggest? Ideas are more real than the physical world. Take for instance a triangle. A triangle can be made according to the template or rules governing triangles, but triangles in the world are imperfect and impermanent. The idea of a triangle is unchanging.

Is the Allegory about education? The cave is the world of conventional opinion The outside world is where conventional opinions are called into question Socrates says- Don’t ever be too ready to laugh at people who are confused But if I am right, then certain teachers are wrong to think they can place knowledge into the head of a student.

We have to turn around Turn mind Turn spirit Turn desires

1. The Allegory of the Cave is written in the form of a(n) _______________between Glaucon and Socrates. A. competition B. exchange of letters C. dialogue

2. Socrates tells Glaucon that the prisoners in the cave are like us are not Greek do not have the capacity to learn or see the truth

3. What criticism does Sophocles offer regarding the teaching methods of some professors? They fail to teach the true meaning of Homer’s epic poems. They claim to put knowledge into their students, when their students are already born with the ability to discover the truth. They spend too much time on mathematics and geometry.

4. What does Socrates say the best minds must do when they have reached an enlightened state? Separate themselves from society and dedicate themselves to learning. Return to the cave (the world) and serve society as impartial leaders. Dedicate themselves to bringing as many people as possible to the same degree of enlightenment in order to have a functioning democracy.

5. In the cave, the prisoners watch Moving shadows made on the wall of the cave as the sun sets behind the trees. Shadows made by a fire that burns behind a procession of people carrying various objects. Hand shadows made by the prison guard on the wall of the cave.