Compare and contrast Socrates' attitude about philosophy (Apology and Allegory of the Cave Readings) with the Good Brahmin's (Voltaire) attitude, conclude the essay by comparing both Socrates’ and the Good Brahmin’s attitudes to your own view on philosophy.
* The paper should be at least 3-5 paragraphs long, the format should include an introduction and conclusion sections.
Socrates and Voltaire are two leading figures in the gallery of the philosopher, they are working at the profit of the philosophy, since the beginning of human civilization, there were philosophers who have pursued answer to the fundamental ideas related with our lives. Philosophers have investigated abstract things such as thinking, metaphysics, logic, art, religion, knowledge,
…show more content…
He advocates to ask the questions to the science for getting a critical thinking by that way you can obtain a good skill, Socrates pleaded for the searching happiness, treasures by asking some philosophic questions. Socrates gave a lot of importance to philosophy besides he is the father of philosophy, he had a dream to solve the problem of the human life by using rational arguments, he wanted to find the human happiness, a good civilization just by philosophy. Socrates encourages people toward wisdom and goodness, Socrates' attitude of learning is his attitude of modesty and humility which has been described as Socratic irony. On the other hand, Voltaire’s view, based on the Good Brahmin’s case, stresses on happiness and ignorance. He states that happiness is best achieved when we are ignorant but that kind of happiness is not worthwhile. Voltaire has seen the reality differently like others Philosopher he said the philosophy allowed the life complicates, it is contrary with the happiness. The Brahmin laments his lack of knowledge about reality and his own existence despite being a learned man. Had he been a “simpleton” he would have had no regrets, yet he does not desire such felicity, he creates a contradiction in itself and raises even further
In “The Allegory of the Cave”, the focus is based on prisoners who are chained up in a cave and can only see the shadows of the real world. In this story one prisoner is released into the “real world” and tries to enlighten the other prisoners. In The Matrix, the main character Neo is living in a world controlled by a computer program and he does not know. He is brought into the real world by people that have been enlightened and he plans to help the other people. Even though The Matrix and “The Allegory of the Cave are set in different points in time and show some different points of view , they also have comparable plots, characters, and symbols.
Imagine yourself sitting inside a dark, damp, cave where the only thing you can see are moving shadows on the cave wall in front of you. You can’t move anywhere or see anything besides the shadows, and these are the only things you’ve seen for your entire life, so these moving dark images are the most real things you’ve ever known. At some point in our childhood we were mentally in this state of darkness, we didn’t know anything about the world or have any complex thoughts. How then, were we brought out of our caves of darkness and misunderstanding? The Allegory of the Cave is a well known section of Plato’s
During the Age of Enlightenment philosophers were common, but perhaps one of the greatest was Voltaire. Voltaire was a French philosopher and writer who inspired many people during his time. He was an outspoken supporter of religious toleration and encouraged freedom of speech, which he conveyed in many of his literary works. Voltaire was a deist. A deist is someone who believes that God created the world, but does not interfere; he allows the natural laws to take care of everything. Along with other important philosophers Voltaire’s ideas influenced important people of the French and American Revolutions.
It becomes rather obvious from the beginning that both pieces of writing were written by two very intelligent philosophers of their time. Augustine’s Confessions provides some insight on the question “Why do we do what we do?”, and Plato’s Cave The Allegory of The Cave answers the question “What is reality and what are we supposed to do with it?”. Both attempt to help others lead better lives by explaining their own opinions and thoughts on certain instances of life.
Authors sometimes use one work to explain or elaborate on the intricacies of another piece of theirs. Plato is one such example as he uses “The Allegory of the Cave” as means to better decipher “The Apology of Socrates.” Plato himself never appears in either dialogue, but it is clear that he disagrees with how Socrates’s trial ended and hopes to prevent another unneeded execution in the future. In “The Apology of Socrates,” Socrates is accused of not recognizing the gods of the state and of corrupting the youth of Athens. Despite the many instances in which these allegations are challenged and, quite frankly, disproved, Socrates is still put to death.
Unlike many other disciplines and ways of studying the world, the philosophical approach can vary from person to person and take many shapes, without restricting itself to one specific method at all time. That quality alone has given enormous freedom and variation to the work of many great philosophers, even on the subject of philosophy. To this end, we now turn our attention to Socrates and Voltaire, two of the great philosophers and their concerns and though on philosophy.
Voltaire was a French philosopher in the eighteen century, a period of free thinkers where freedom of thought was emerging sufficiently. However, he and others were not academically trained scholars operating in official institutions of their time. They largely depended on talent and the knowledge they had acquired in school having come from able families.
Choose one of the following topics to address in your paper. Be sure to use specific reasons/examples to support your point. Colorize your rough draft.
In my opinion both the Allegory of the Cave and Apology is a struggle between good and evil. The Allegory of the cave describes a story where prisons were kept in the cavern since birth. All they could see is only shadow of real objects. They were unable to move their head and seeing the shadow was their only reality. When one of them was released he was introduced to the outer life in which he had a hard time to adjust. Eventually he starts feeling and seeing the true nature and his eye gets adjusted to the beauty he never seen before. Questioning himself what is the reality he was mostly struggling with good vs evil meaning darkness and light he realized that outside world is the reality.
Comparison Essay: Allegory of The Cave Rough Draft When a reality is shattered, there can be many effects. The two realities referred to the allegory one being life inside the cave, and the other being life outside of the cave. Although there doesn’t have to be one specific way to live, I believe that life outside of the cave is better. The humans held captive are forced to think that the cave life is the right way. They spend their time living in oblivion even after the first prisoner has escaped and found the true light.
During the time this piece was written, Enlightenment (an intellectual movement advocating individual rather than traditional thinking), was in full effect. The Scientific Revolution started prior to Voltaire, but the new spark in thinking mathematically and scientifically leading to philosophes questioning social normalities. Rulers like Catherine the Great of Russia begin use ideas from the Enlightenment to inspire their kingdoms functions and change them to the new “modern” ways of thinking. Other works like the Encyclopedia: The Rational Dictionary of the Sciences, the Arts, and the Crafts, which was a group effort from philosophes advocating for an increase in human knowledge and changing the way of thinking. Common people were beginning to read more
Philosophy can be defined as the pursuit of wisdom or the love of knowledge. Socrates, as one of the most well-known of the early philosophers, epitomizes the idea of a pursuer of wisdom as he travels about Athens searching for the true meaning of the word. Throughout Plato’s early writings, he and Socrates search for meanings of previously undefined concepts, such as truth, wisdom, and beauty. As Socrates is often used as a mouthpiece for Plato’s ideas about the world, one cannot be sure that they had the same agenda, but it seems as though they would both agree that dialogue was the best way to go about obtaining the definitions they sought. If two people begin on common ground in a conversation, as Socrates often tries to do, they are
With the notion of philosophy and the studying of philosophy it is well known that it is powerful and dangerous. Philosophy has many reasons for its importance such as how to understand your ideas, the origin of your ideas, how to contrast arguments. Philosophy can also help you defend arguments, read it, build your position and understand it. Philosophy is used for the betterment of the world, gender, race, civilization, town, state, country, etc. But in order to practice philosophy you need parrhesia and you need philosophy to practice parrhesia, they come hand in hand with each other. There have been many imperative philosophers that gave us the knowledge and foundation for our study of
In the Allegory of the Cave there are chained prisoners in cave who can only stare at the cave wall in front of them. At the back there is a long entrance with a staircase the width of the cave and a fire burning in the distance. They see only shadows projected in front of them from a raised platform and hear an echo that they attribute to what they observe. They talk about and name the shadows of objects they see before them. To them the truth are the shadows. Then one day one of the prisoners is released. He is told that what he saw before was an illusion. Once he is outside it takes a while for his eyes to adjust to the sun. First he observed the shadows of thing then their reflection and finally the actual object. Remembering his previous state he goes back to the cave and tries to explain that everything is an illusion but they laugh at him and think he’s crazy. They believe it best not to ascend and they choose to remain as they are. The cave represented opinion. The shadows that are cast on to the wall represented physical objects. The prisoners represented the common people (Welles).
“Allegory of the Cave”, written by Plato, is story that contrasts the differences between what is real and what is perceived. He opens with Glaucon talking to Socrates. He has Glaucon imagine what it would be like to be chained down in a cave, not able to see anything other than what is in front of him. He tells a story of men that were trapped in a cave and were prisoners to the truth. These prisoners have only seen shadows. But because of their ignorance, these slaves to the cave believe that the shadows are real. The story goes on to say that one of the men has been dragged out of the cave. He is not happy to see the real world, yet upset because he is being taken