Plato's Allegory of the Cave Flashcards

1
Q

when did Plato live?

A

428-347 BC

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2
Q

what was Plato’s body of work?

A

the republic

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3
Q

what does Plato think of a posteriori knowledge?

A

it is no more than opinion

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4
Q

what, for Plato, is truth?

A

a priori reasoning

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5
Q

what is the purpose of the cave analogy?

A

to attempt to show the contrast between a priori knowledge and a posteriori knowledge

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6
Q

describe the prisoners

A

been in the cave since birth

face the back of the cave

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7
Q

explain the prisoners

A

ordinary people in the everyday world

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8
Q

describe the chains

A

around the prisoners necks

makes them unable to turn around

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9
Q

explain the chains

A

our senses that cause us to accept all that we see and hear

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10
Q

describe the cave and the low wall

A

between the prisoners and the fire

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11
Q

explain the cave and the low wall

A

the empirical world that we see around us

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12
Q

describe the fire

A

burns behind the prisoners and casts shadows on the wall

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13
Q

explain the fire

A

a copy of the form of the good

allows us to see the shadows

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14
Q

describe the people and shadow play

A

behind the low wall a group of people are moving about and talking whilst holding puppets

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15
Q

explain the people and shadow play

A

the illusions that we experience

sense data

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16
Q

describe the prisoner set free

A

would feel pain and confusion

17
Q

explain the prisoner set free

A

the person who becomes a philosopher

18
Q

describe the difficult assent

A

he would be blinded by the light and unable to see

19
Q

explain the difficult assent

A

the road to philosophical knowledge is hard

20
Q

describe the reaction to the outside world

A

at first he would want to see the shadows of the cave again but slowly he would be amazed by the world

21
Q

explain the reaction to the outside world

A

this is the real world but it takes time to accept it

22
Q

describe the sun

A

the source of all life

23
Q

explain the sun

A

the form of all good

the highest form

24
Q

describe the return to the cave

A

he would go back to the cave and tell the others what he had seen

25
explain the return to the cave
a philosophers duty to educate others
26
describe the difficulty adjusting to darkness
his journey would have weakened his ability to predict the movement of the shadows
27
explain the difficulty of adjusting to darkness
once you have been enlightened to real knowledge its hard to see the truth in empirical opinions
28
describe the persecution by other prisoners
if he tried to convince the other prisoners to follow him they would think he's insane and put him to death
29
explain the persecution by the other prisoners
like Socrates the philosopher will be ridiculed and mistreated
30
criticisms of the prisoners
if everyone was a philosopher science would have never progressed unfair implies that if you're not a philosopher then you are inferior
31
criticisms of the chains
it makes you narrow minded and judgemental people still question things even though they trust their senses if we didn't have senses we wouldn't function Einstein, Newton
32
criticisms of the cave
Plato is interested in beauty but cant see the beauty in the empirical world its not a good metaphor for the real world
33
criticisms of the fire
makes us sound primitive | it devalues how essential fire is