Philosophy And Its Importance Of Philosophy

“He [Plato] maintained that the objects of knowledge, the things which could be defined, did exist, but were not to be identified with anything in the perceptible world. Their existence was in an ideal world outside space and time” (Guthrie 88) Guthrie goes on to explain that these two “worlds” would be known as the ‘’World of Forms’’ and the ‘’World of Becoming.’’ Plato’s experiences of the two worlds are illustrated by the “Allegory of the Cave,” a fictional narrate of the journey of a philosopher, more specifically Plato. The cave is used as a metaphor of the world of becoming. While the shackled only see what they believe is reality, digging deeper will reveal the shadows on the wall are a false sense of being. It takes the “philosopher” being unshackled to be enlightened by the outside world of the essences of ideas, which Plato describes as the “world of forms.” Plato’s experience in this “Allegory of the Cave” has led to the idea of the inequality of intelligence which explains that not everyone is so blessed to be the “Philosopher King.” The title also lays the foundation for the highest honor in Plato’s Republic. However, Plato’s teacher, Socrates, thought the opposite that there is an equality of intelligence. The two philosophers are each other’s influences and have a profound effect on philosophy as we know it.

Through time, his knowledge and body adjusted; including his eyesight to the real world. He returned to the cave to share his realization to the rest of the prisoners. However, with his body and eyesight calibrated for the real world, he was unable to see and view shadows in the cave properly. The rest of the prisoners then concluded that his exploration affected him, viewed him as idiotic and refused to be freed from the cave. In my view, Plato’s message here is how people are comfortable with their own point of view; belief system that they prefer to stay behind that belief or viewpoint as opposed to exploring the possibility of the real truth.

Here Hawking and Mlodinow are comparing psychics and philosophy. Which is saying the choice for theory-dependent understanding of reality over straightforward observation as final mediator. Plato believed there was only one real version of anything or basically the perfect version. Plato also believed that through deep thought and rational thinking someone can achieve genuine knowledge. Plato says the world is timeless and knowledge about world forms is genuine knowledge. Plato believed philosophers should rule the world because they seek out real knowledge and not just imitations of

We first learn about Plato’s cave in book seven of the Republic. In his book, Plato describes a conversation he has with Socrates. He tells Socrates the story of some men who had lived their entire lives in a cave. These men knew nothing beyond what they could see on the cave wall. One day, a man is freed. At first he rejected his new found knowledge of the world but, once he accepted what he learned outside of the cave, he could never go back to his sheltered existence. The cave is an allegory, a story that has a hidden meaning. Plato is attempting to describe the difference between conventional opinion and getting educated. Plato says “compare the effect of education and of the lack of it” (Plato 175).

Even if someone has the means or manner necessary to pursue philosophy there are those that choose not to do so. Socrates notes that those that do not wish to engage in philosophical thought not only wish to deny it for themselves but also to others. In the cave allegory, Socrates appears to suggest that those that do not seek enlightened knowledge and instead wish to only accept the world as they understand it, would treat those that do seek enlightenment as irrational. They seem to think that the explorers were blinded by the light of knowledge when they looked away from the shadows of the cave wall and no longer have a grasp on what is true (Plato, 360 B.C.E). The Brahmin’s poor neighbor seems to have no concern about reflecting on the world beyond what she already knows but is unable to even understand the question about her soul. Both philosophers seem to agree that those that have chosen not to think about philosophy are content with the world as they see or understand it. However, Socrates cave dwellers would appear to be concerned about a philosopher spoiling their practice of “conferring honours among themselves” by butting against what they know to be true where the Brahmins neighbor might smile and nod as she continued upon her contented way (Plato, 360 B.C.E).

Plato makes the point in his analogies that philosophers are the only ones who can have true knowledge. “Above all, the shadow world requires no action by the viewer, no real love or hate, no communication with others, no commitment of any kind…only passive receptivity” (Mackenzie). Mackenzie points out the the shadows, just like the screens, do not require intense knowledge, rather knowing things that were in the sensible realm. Mackenzie’s comparison to modern day screens to Plato’s shadows show the fake reality, where true knowledge is not needed but belief is.

In Socrates’ mind education is not simply an information exchange; rather it is a painful experience, since all that one had previously believed is typically wrong. This painful experience can be seen as the “philosopher” turns around and stares into the light and eventually learning that everything he had experienced in life were just shadows.

All individuals spend some, if not the entirety of their life in what Socrates describes as, “a cave with a long passageway stretching between [them] and the cave’s mouth,” (Sterling and Scott 209). Cave dwellers find contentment in the shadows on the wall of the cave, never desiring to uncover the root of the shadows and counter fit images. They, unlike philosophers, possess little courage, and desire never to be freed of their shackles and blinders. Philosophers, the minority population of cave dwellers, are those prisoners who not only escape bondage, but have an overwhelming urge to journey outside the cave once they are freed: “One prisoner is freed from his shackles. He is suddenly compelled to stand up, turn around, walk and look toward the light,” (Sterling and Scott 210). The journey from darkness to light, as painted by Socrates, involves pain, confusion, ridicule, and sometimes death; however, those who journey towards the light ultimately reach a greater awareness of true reality, not the disguised reality of shadows and false images on the cave’s walls. Socrates states, “It is a conversion, a turning of the soul away from the day whose light is darkness to the true day. It is the accent to

Brianna Vega August 10, 2014 Truth, what does it mean to know what the truth is & how can we validate what the truth is? In Plato’s “Allegory of The Cave “ Plato demonstrations how people validate the truth based on what they see; but things aren’t always as they may appear. The people in the story think that the shadows in the cave are real when in all actuality the shadows were just illusions. Just because the people saw the shadows doesn’t mean they are valid.

In comparing the movie The Matrix to Plato’s The Allegory of the Cave, both have a theme of trying to find the truth. In the Matrix, Neo is confronted with a difficult choice. Either he can choose the blue pill and forget that Morpheus ever confronted him with such news of the Matrix or he can take the red pill and find out the truth, which is that he has been living in a simulated fantasy world. The Allegory of the Cave is similar in that Plato attempts to explain reality. There are some epistemology questions that occur in both situations such as, what is truth, how do we find it, and how reliable are our perceptions? The people that are prisoners in the cave cannot see the world beyond the cave except for glimmers of light reflecting off the wall and therefore believe that the cave is the real world when in fact if they could escape to the outer world they would realize that outside the cave, in the light, is actually the real world. Another example of comparison is Plato’s two world belief, a world of being and a world of becoming.

When Plato wrote “The Cave”, he was talking about how the process of learning philosophy. You are in a cave where you are only shown a fraction of the truth, and you believe it to be true because you have never been shown, or have known, anything different. But then someone comes along and shows you the way to enlightenment, and brings you to a higher level of understanding by showing you that the things you have perceived as real were not real at all, but shadows of the real figures dancing along the walls. You begin to explore the outside world for the first time, absorbing this new found information; but then you think back to the others that are still stuck in the cave. You return to those people to show them this new world and its knowledge, but they do not take you seriously because you have grown unaccustomed to the conditions of the cave, your eyes cannot see well in the dark anymore; and therefore, they do not take you choose to ignore you because you are no longer like them and on their level of understanding. Or perhaps they would get angry with you because you are annoying them with knowledge they do not want, and would possibly want you out of their lives for it. But still you continue to try because that is your obligation to society, to share the knowledge to better everyone for the greater good. The cave has been discussed for the past 2000 years since Plato wrote it in his book “The Republic”. From this allegory, and the book, the philosophers after

Plato is known as the most progressive and fruitful philosophers of his time. He created the practice of questioning everything, and he illuminated the knowledge ignored by the majority. His ideas were rejected, despite his intentions of expanding knowledge and creating a more clear vision of the world. However, his students of philosophy, Aristotle and Glaucon were the most prominent of those who chose to learn from him. Plato engaged in dialogue with these two in particular, and he used one of his conversations with Glaucon to exemplify the message that people did not want to be enlightened in the "Allegory of the Cave", a section of his book Republic. Through the use of counterpoints, metaphors, symbols, and paradox, Plato was able to accomplish presenting a paradigm where humans find it difficult to accept the reality of enlightenment over the comfort of a simpler fantasy they have always known in the “Allegory of the Cave.”

To add on, Plato 's cave is seen in many forms of depictions. Individuals have given many definitions to what his allegory is portraying. In short, it is man in a cave with no view of the outside light and is set to have his life perceived by mere shadows. Morris explains, "The shadows are what the prisoners deem to be real, so they must stand for what we deem to be real" (418). Plato classifys the cave 's world as the "Lower World", meaning no act of wisdom is inside for all man knows is one place. Plato also classify 's the outside world as the "Upper World" as being the world of wisdom or enlightenment. As his allegory precedes, the man finds his way out and sees the "Upper World" first hand. When viewing what he does not know leads him to find that this is the truth and everyone in that cave should hear of it. Morris explains, "Because it is self-verifying, there will be

Philosophy is about questioning everything in life in the world we live in. Without the questioning and wondering in life then philosophy would be worthless. The great philosopher Socrates acknowledge this and therefore he would wonder everything in life making him a wise man not because he knew everything but because what ever wisdom he has comes from his knowledge that he knows nothing. After Socrates being sentenced to death penalty for corrupting the young, by not believing in the gods in which the city believed in. During the trial Socrates claimed “ an unexamined life is not worth living”. Making it one of the biggest  influence for everybody in today's world. Many philosophers have given a lot of that on what he may had tried to say in which ended made the inference that for Socrates living meant to be able to question everything around him. With that being said an examined life would be to be precautious with all your decisions and to question everything in our surroundings to have knowledge and that kind of life would be worth living. In today's life we live in world full of decisions in which it helps it shape our whole world. One bad decision and your whole life could change. Therefore, questioning all our decision sounds like the most equitable thing to do since we would be making conscious ethical decisions. Which is why an unexamined life would not be worth living since you would be living a life in which you never really end up learning from all your mistakes.

“All men are ‘philosophers’, by defining the limits and characteristics of the ‘spontaneous philosophy’ which is proper to everyone.” Gramsci said. This kind of philosophy consists of language itself, common sense, and last one is popular religion. (A.Gramsci, 1929-1935 the study of philosophy) It means everyone could be a philosopher in some aspect of our life. For example, people could think about an issue in different ways because of the differences of origin of language, habit, and social environment they are living. It’s no longer possible to define a philosopher as an intelligent or professional person who is working at some particular categories of subjects nowadays. People