Plato’s Allegory of the Cave

Appearances Can Be Deceiving How Do We Determine Truth? The question of all philosophy! A very basic understanding: Is it logical? Does it make sense? Is it factual? Is it a fact? Is it practical? Can you live it? Appearances vs. Reality What is real and what is not? Tricksters Humorous, tricky characters who make mischief BIG QUESTIONS FOR A UNIT! Gwendolyn Brooks' "Truth"

Crash Course in Philosophy Plato – ancient Greece; Abstract ideas over material forms; truth lies in the ideas Descartes – 1600s France “I think, therefore I am”; Truth can be found through a logical formula The Empiricists (Locke, Hume) early 1700s Britain; sensory evidence; true can be found through experience w/the world Kant – late 1700s Germany; reality depends on our mind; We inherently know truth and what is right and wrong. Sartre – mid 1900s France; the absurd; we make our own truth

Allegory Definition: a story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a religious, moral or political one.

Plato’s Allegory of the Cave https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lVDaSgyi3xE Questions What is an allegory? Would you want to be released from the cave? Why or why not? What is like the cave in our world? How is the way you understand the world, your ideas and beliefs, shaped by the actions of others? Who has the power to shape your ideas and beliefs? In what ways is this good and in what ways is it not so good? Are there things you know to be true? What are they, and how do you know them? What is Plato trying to tell us in the allegory?

Connection: The Matrix Based on Plato’s allegory humans trapped in the Matrix = the people in the cave They see only what the machines want them to see, but they believe they see reality as it really is. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7BuQFUhsRM Questions What is the deal that Cypher makes with the agent? Cypher chooses to leave the resistance and go back to the Matrix. He doesn’t want to live the truth anymore, because it is too ugly and painful. He decides that he prefers the pleasurable lies of the Matrix. What’s wrong with the Matrix, if what we feel is pleasurable? Cypher concludes that it is better in some ways to live in the Matrix than to see things as they really are. Is he wrong? 

The Experience Machine 1971 Anarchy, State, and Utopia, Robert Nozick Gives you any experience you desired Neuropsychologists stimulate your brain so you think and feel whatever you want floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain you believe the dream is reality Questions Should you hook up to the experience machine for life, pre-programming all of your life’s desires? Why or why not? Would it make any difference to you if you were actually doing these things? If in every respect it seems to you that you’re in a good situation, isn’t it true that you are in a good situation? Do we care about certain things independent of the experiences they create for us? For example, is being in reality important, even if the experience isn’t pleasant? Is it better to live happily in the Matrix than miserably in reality? Why or why not? How do we know that we are not in an experience machine right now? Can we prove we are not? How do we know that what we perceive is real?

Independent and Subordinate Clauses Unless the rain stops soon, mudslides will engulf these hillside villas. Brian asked that he be excused. The woman to whom I introduced you teaches Latin. Independent Can stand alone Subordinate (dependent) Can’t stand alone

Adjective Clauses Def: Subordinate (Dependent) Clause that modifies a noun Key words to look for: that, which, who, whom, whose Or a relative adverb: before, since, when, where, why

TOD: pick out the subordinate clause The luxury of baths, which we have come to associate with Rome, was imported from the East. The earliest Roman literature, which contained translations from Greek classics, was based on Greek models Who wrote “Allegory of the Cave”? Questions/Comments HW: W&G pg. 323-328 ex. 29&31