Outline Plato’s simile of the ship and two of its possible purposes (15 Marks)
Plato’s simile of the ship is used as a retort to Adeimantus’ assertions that philosophers are “very odd birds, not to say thoroughly vicious”, and even their best qualities prove to be completely useless to society. In the simile, each feature represents an element of Athenian society. The ship itself represents the Athenian democratic state. The captain of the ship, who is large and strong, is also deaf and short-sighted, as he cannot what is good for society in the long run, thus represents the currently democratically elected ruler. The crew of the ship represent the politicians. They quarrel amongst themselves, with a desire to seize power of the captain.
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However, there was only a specific criteria of people who would be able to attend such meetings - the young and the rich, as they were the only people who could afford to take time off to attend. Thirdly, sophists, trained in the Arts of public speaking, were asked to deliver speeches. However, as they were only interested in wealth and power, they were somewhat easily bribed into speaking and voting in certain ways - subjecting themselves to popular opinion. The voters themselves were also often bribed, and in some cases, threatened. From this, we can infer that Assembly meetings were not ordered events, but instead chaotic and corrupt, with bribery, use of threat, and sophists “smooth-talking” their way to influence the voters decisions. The simile of the ship illustrates this through the crew members (representing the politicians) vying amongst one another to gain power, and alike the sophists, not having any interest in what is good for the state, but instead, just an egotistic interest in wealth and power.
Another personal purpose of the Simile of the Ship, following on from the first purpose, is to illustrate how true philosophers are ignored (alike the Navigator is ignored on the ship) or held in contempt in democratic society when they should be in charge. The Philosopher should be in charge, Plato purports, as the philosopher has true, justified knowledge of the state and also
The protagonist, Odysseus, encounters Polyphemus and Scylla and must surpass them with his intelligence and perceptive in order to keep his shipmates safe. Polyphemus questions the main character, Odysseus, about his ship’s whereabouts. “Tell me, where was it, now, you left your ship-.../ He thought he’d find out, but I saw through this,/ and answered with a ready lie: ‘My ship?.../ broke it up on the rocks at your land’s end” (269, 271-272, 274). The author uses this scene to elucidate how the protagonist uses his cleverness to see the cyclop’s genuine intentions and answers with a perfect lie to keep the ship and his other crew members in it safe. The cyclop was one of the many antagonists and Odysseus had very cunningly dealt with him. Furthermore, as they approached Scylla, the main character doesn’t tell his crew members that six of them were going to die. “But as I sent them on toward Scylla, I/ told them nothing, as they could do nothing. They would have dropped their cars again, in panic,/ to roll for cover under the decking…” (790-793). Homer uses this specific event to substantiate how Odysseus had made a reasonable resolution for his crew members, because Odysseus knows that he can't win against Scylla, another one of the several enemies of Odysseus in his odyssey. His intelligence is truly unveiled when he doesn't tell his men about the incident bound to occur, because he knew the aftermath. The main character uses his intellect when opposed to Scylla to make the best decision possible for his men, and he use his quick wits when he moves the focus off of his ship when conversing with Polyphemus.
“We have lots of assemblies. Everybody enjoys speaking and being together. We decide things. But they don’t get done” (85).
Plato is remembered as one of the worlds best known philosophers who along with his writings are widely studied. Plato was a student of the great Greek philosopher Socrates and later went on to be the teacher of Aristotle. Plato’s writings such as “The Republic”, “Apology” and “Symposium” reveal a great amount of insight on what was central to his worldview. He was a true philosopher as he was constantly searching for wisdom and believed questioning every aspect of life would lead him to the knowledge he sought. He was disgusted with the common occurrence of Greeks not thinking for themselves but simply accepting the popular opinion also known as doxa. Plato believed that we ought to search for and meditate on the ideal versions of beauty, justice, wisdom, and other concepts which he referred to as the forms. His hostility towards doxa, theory of the forms, and perspective on reality were the central ideas that shaped Plato’s worldview and led him to be the great philosopher who is still revered today.
Now let us take a look into the background of the story. Plato gives his ideals on a perfect society and everything it should include. He basically implies that justice is rightness, and rightness is whatever he feels it should be. He breaks society down into guardians, wage earners, and auxiliaries. Wage earners are people such as surgeons or shoemakers.
As stated in my thesis paragraph,rome has a far better system than athens.it starts at the top with an organized and easier to complete their duties as law makers.(doc f) the athenian assembly was less organized and more chaotic.(doc e) the athenian assembly was chosen by random luck (doc b), so there is a good chance many people would not attend or want to attend. In addition to the lottery system in athens, the location where they met could be in a remote location making it difficult
Homeric or epic similes can be found all throughout The Odyssey written by Homer. A simile is the comparison of two unlike objects using like or as. Homer’s similes are considered to be “epic” because of how elaborate they are to help the audience “feel” and picture a scene. One of the most glorified scenes in The Odyssey, full of epic similes, is when Odysseus stabs the eye of Cyclops Polyphemus. As soon as Polyphemus fell asleep from the over-consumption of wine, Odysseus put his plan into motion to escape the Cyclops’ cave. Courage took over Odysseus and Homer writes:
I will argue that we may view the woman as representative of Odysseus’ grief in his moment of pity and pain, the simile in its entirety may be regarded as analogous to a potential future for his own oikos. Should he fail to return home or succeed to return only to deceit and demise, Odysseus will initiate the splintering of his home into the rabid hands of the suitors. The simile shifts from referring solely to Odysseus to encompass the possible fate of his entire household. This promotes the idea that this hero reaps what he sows for, as the perpetrator of like monstrosity, he faces the tragedy of a future akin to that of his own surviving victims.
The Odyssey is the perfect metaphor for life! Odysseus fights off the bad and helps the good. He is the perfect leader, bold, strong, clever, and brave. The Odyssey is a perfect metaphor for life because Odysseus took advice from Circe on choosing the lesser of two evils, uses strategy to escape Polyphemus, and he is away from is family for years.
Only the highly educated and wealthy class made up the Senate. The Concilium Plebis only consisted of representatives for the Plebeians, and the Comitia Centuriata represented most of the landowning class. Both the popular assemblies were given pre-discussed debates, and any disagreements with the Senate were rare. Furthermore, the Consuls, who were the most prestigious magistrates and “the military and political heads of state” were also advised by the Senate (Gwynn, 20).
In Books VI and VII of the The Republic, Plato uses the four analogies to represent his theory of justice in the ideal state. The four analogies include the ship, the sun, the divided line, and the cave. The analogies of the ship, and the cave are used by Plato to represent the people of the state and proving his argument that philosophers are the true rulers of the state. The divided line and the sun analogies also supports Plato’s point about philosophers obtaining intellectual knowledge apposed to the ordinary citizens who only have sensible knowledge. Plato argues that the ordinary citizens can be educated but will never reach the level of knowledge that the philosophers have. Plato’s points, although supported by the four analogies
Philosophy is a Greek word meaning "love of wisdom." Throughout Plato's Republic, wisdom plays an important role. According to Plato, education is wisdom. In the passage, 518d, Plato discusses the true meaning of education vicariously through Socrates. Some literary mechanisms can be found in the passage and I will show how they fit in the text and how they contribute to the main themes of Plato's Republic.
It’s easy to tell that the ocean is a mysterious and isolating place from all of the tragic tales we hear from sailors both real and fictional. Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” and an anonymous author’s “The Seafarer” are quite similar in that they both revolve around said tragic tales told by sailors. However, there seem to be more commonalities between their themes, tones, and messages rather than their seaward-bound settings. But before we can discuss these similar settings and deeper themes, we have to tackle their origins.
regard to the issues placed before them. Membership in these early assemblies would be limited by such things as class, income, family ties, and affiliations. The assemblies had various and specific functions within the Roman republican
Socrates continues the conversation with Glaucon and now focuses on the obligation of the guardians and philosophers to serve the people as a result of their education.
In 1798, Samuel Taylor Coleridge published his poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. Several editions followed this, the most notable being the 1815 version, which included a gloss. This poem has grown to become well known and debated, especially concerning the message that Coleridge was attempting to impart. The interpretation of the poem as a whole and of various characters, settings, and objects has been the subject of numerous essays, papers, books, and lectures. There are approximately four things that are major symbols in this work, along with the possibility that the structure itself is symbolic.