Plato Introduction

Essay Prompt: Is ignorance bliss, or does the truth set you free? Take a position and use as evidence: The Allegory of the Cave The Matrix Oedipus Rex

Stop, Think, Write Can there be a difference between believing something to be true and it really being true? How can someone believe an illusion and accept it as reality? What can happen to people when their illusions are shattered and reality is revealed?

Socratic Seminar – Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” Review the text, your drawing, and your answers to the questions. On a separate sheet of paper, write down two comprehension questions and two interpretation/opinion questions: Comprehension Questions: “What happens when…” “What does ________ look like…” “Who is saying…” “What does ________ mean…” Interpretation/Opinion Questions: “Why does…” “Do you guys agree that…” “I wonder why…” “This relates to….”

Socratic Seminar – Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” What “caves” in modern life can people be/feel imprisoned in? What sorts of things “shackle” the mind in today’s world? How relevant today is Plato’s point that people confuse “shadows” with “reality”? According to Plato, who should be are political leaders? Do we have those leaders today? How do you know that the person who comes back down into the cave knows the truth? Why do the prisoners react how they do when the freed man tries to tell them the truth? What does the allegory suggest that we humans do to be enlightened people? Do you think the enlightened one is blessed or cursed?

Video versions Funny short animation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c6KVHMU3gb8&NR=1 Longer animation – good explanation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2afuTvUzBQ Claymation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LTWwY8Ok5I0&feature=related School of Life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWlUKJIMge4

COOKIES Plato believes that reality is not the cookie Reality is the mold…the perfect FORM The cookie itself is like a shadow in the cave

Plato 427-347 BCE Student of Socrates 29 years old when Socrates died Started Academy (school) “Let no one ignorant of mathematics enter here.” Open until the fall of the Roman Empire

Plato’s Two “Realities” World of Senses Made of matter that can be seen, touched, smelled, heard, or tasted Actual instances of things: a chair, a flower, a cookie, etc. Imperfect examples (shadows) of the perfect Form Always changing, decaying Not “real” World of Forms Can be the ideas (“molds”) behind things: chair, flower, cookie, etc. Can be concepts: truth, wisdom, beauty, etc. Perfect Invisible Eternal, unchanging Abstract More real than “reality”

The Form of the Good The “Form of Forms” (perfection) That from which everything owes its existence Represented by the Sun in “The Allegory of the Cave” The Form of the Good is at the top of the pyramid. Below the Form of the Good are all the other Forms Below these forms exist the particular objects we see every day. God? Plato’s ideas helped shape religious thinking…

Immortal Soul (influenced by Socrates) Plato believed our souls existed BEFORE our physical bodies were born Before our bodies are born, our souls are presented with knowledge of all the Forms But…when you are born and your soul inhabits your body, it forgets all of the Forms Human experiences stir vague recollections in the soul “I always knew it and under proper guidance remembered it.” So, you are not learning, but recalling what was once known. Humans yearn (eros) to return to the perfect world vs. the world that we see that is imperfect and insignificant

But Plato says that’s an ILLUSION! So what do people do? Some try to satisfy their yearnings with money and material possessions _______________________________________ But Plato says that’s an ILLUSION!

EDUCATION and Reason According to Plato, only education can teach us not to focus on the transitory nature of material things and, instead, to seek out truth and “light”  WISDOM Reason will lead us to wisdom