Plato's "Allegory of the Cave"

1.       The allegory cave represents prisoners who live in a world filled with ignorance and stubbornness because they refuse to deal with change so they are afraid to turn their head and join the light.

2.       Prisoners only see the shadows and not the object that creates the shadow because they are ignorant. The darkness of the cave represents the lack of knowledge and changes the prisoners’ desire. The prisoners that decide to leave become part of the realm of intellectuals.

3.       It is not the prisoners’ fault that they are stuck in the cave because they haven’t experienced the truth and how knowledge affects their education and enlightenment. If they were exposed to the light and knowledge then they would never want to go back to the cave where ignorance is bliss.

4.       The shackles symbolize that the prisoners are bound to what they know and that they are unable to join the light if they are not optimistic and open to change. The cave represents darkness in its purest form, engulfed in ignorance and its inhabitant’s undeniable refusal of change.

5.       Nowadays I think technology shackles the mind because if we didn’t have technology anymore then we would have to go back to reading books, newspapers, and encyclopedias to acquire information which would make many people very unhappy.

6.       The freed prisoner is open to change and now dwells in the realm of intellectuals so unlike the prisoners in the cave he craves knowledge because ever since he moved into the light he has never even thought of returning to the cave. The prisoners’ perspective is that they fear change so they continue to stay in the cave because they want to stay ignorant and not be exposed to the light which contains knowledge and the truth.

7.       The two ways lack of clarity and intellectual confusion can occur is by never being exposed to knowledge and the truth so you stay in the cave where ignorance is bliss or if you are exposed to knowledge and the truth and it scares you because you are afraid of change so you return to the cave where everything there is familiar and “safe” to you.

8.       Once a prisoner turns his head and becomes optimistic and searches for knowledge then he will be free from the shackles that the cave binds him with. The freed prisoner has now acquired intellectual freedom and he will most likely take advantage of it by seeking help from others that have been exposed to the light and collaborate with them to gain even more knowledge.

9.       I agree there is a difference between an appearance and reality because like Mackenzie said in class just because Dr. Preston was wearing a wedding ring that doesn’t mean he is married which was an assumption. There could be a more complicated story behind the ring, for example, the reality could be that Dr. Preston is still wearing the ring because he is having trouble getting over the loss of his wife because she has recently died from a lethal disease.

10.   I don’t understand this question.