The Cave Analogy

Question 1

The escapee

Answer 1

Philosopher or a man who has been enlightened his desire for knowledge makes him leave the cave and his desire to spread knowledge leads him back into the cave

Question 2

The cave

Answer 2

Represents the visible world around us and our universe. We take it as the real world because we haven’t know anything different

Question 3

The prisoners

Answer 3

Humanity, who is unable to understand the words of men who are “enlightened”

Question 4

The chains

Answer 4

Human thoughts and desires which constrain us and keep us from achieving our true philosophical potential

Question 5

The shadows

Answer 5

What we perceive as the whole of our reality. All empirical knowledge. The particles-objects of our world which are a form of reality but aren’t true reality.

Question 6

Plato was a

Answer 6

Rationalist- knowledge can only come through though not experience

Question 7

A priori

Answer 7

Reasoning supported by theory not evidence

Question 8

Why did he write the cave as an allegory

Answer 8

It represents real events and world views which Plato wanted to express

Question 9

What book did Plato write the cave allegory in?

Answer 9

The republic 7

Question 10

Eikasia

Answer 10

The state of mind the other prisoners are in. Lowest level of understanding based on artificial understanding, guesswork and observation

Question 11

Empirical knowledge

Answer 11

Option which is gained through the senses

Question 12

Outside

Answer 12

The eternal and immutable world, true reality. The world of the forms and ideas

Question 13

The sun

Answer 13

Enlightenment or the perfect form of the good

Question 14

The journey out of the cave

Answer 14

The struggle for knowledge and battle against bodily desires

Question 15

Return to the cave

Answer 15

Socrates’ attempt to explain his ideas and philosophy

Question 16

What was platos point of the cave allegory

Answer 16

You have I distinguish between the two realities: that of empirical knowledge and that of a priori knowledge which is the truest reality. Those who escape from the world of empirical knowledge can know the truth which is in the world of the forms

Question 17

What does the cave represent

Answer 17

A world where people don’t fully understand reality because they rely on empirical knowledge instead of a priori knowledge

Question 18

It is an absolutist argument and therefore

Answer 18

In platos mind can’t be disproved

Question 19

Criticisms

Answer 19

There ain’t any proof that there is a cave or an outside world

Question 20

Criticism

Answer 20

How do we prove who is living in the empirical world and who is living in the try world because everyone thinks we are living in the true reality

Question 21

Aristotle’s criticism

Answer 21

Disagreed in his book nicomanchean ethics. Didn’t agree that the truest form of an object over and above the particle form

Question 22

What is opinion gained through

Answer 22

Sense, or empirical knowledge

Question 23

What is true knowledge gained through

Answer 23

Philosophical reason and is certain

Question 24

Who should lead or society

Answer 24

Someone who has studied philosophy and is her fire enlightened to the true reality