Plato and the Cave

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Plato and the Cave
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Plato History

• Plato was a very important classical Greek
  philosopher. He lived from 427 BC to 347 BC. He
  was a student of Socrates and the teacher of
  Aristotle. Plato wrote about many ideas in
  philosophy that are still talked about today.
• Plato wrote his books in the form of dialogues --
  people talking about ideas, and sometimes
  disagreeing about them. This makes Plato's books
  more interesting to read.

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Plato and Aristotle
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Discussion Questions

• What is real?
• Have you ever had a dream which was so vivid that
  you were sure it really happened?
• How do we know the difference between dreams and
  reality?
• Do you believe everything you see?
• Is it always best to know the truth?

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What is real?

• Imagine someone coming into the room you are in
  right now, claiming that all you had ever
  believed to know about yourself and the world was
  nothing more than an illusion. What would you say
  to such a person? Would you believe them, or
  would you dismiss their ideas as delusion? 

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What does it mean?

• Cavethe illusory world
• Prisonersunenlightened people
• Shadowswhat people perceive to be reality
• Released prisonerphilosopher
• Journeypursuit of knowledge

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What does it mean?

• Outside worldreal world of forms
• Sunform of the good
• Return of the prisonerPlato's own experiences

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The Matrix

• Viewers of The Matrix remember the moment in the
  film when Neo is released from his prison and
  made to grasp the truth of his life and the
  world. The account above roughly captures that
  turning point in the 1999 film, and yet it is
  drawn from an image crafted almost twenty-four
  hundred years ago by the Greek philosopher, Plato
  (427-347 B.C.E.). Today the Republic is the most
  influential work by Plato, and the allegory of
  the Cave the most famous part of the Republic. If
  you know that Socrates was tried, convicted, and
  sentenced to death by drinking hemlock, or that
  Socrates thought that the unexamined life is not
  worth living, you may also know that Socrates in
  the Republic likened the human condition to the
  state of prisoners bound in a cave seeing only
  shadows projected on the wall in front of them.
  Transcending this state is the aim of genuine
  education, conceived as a release from
  imprisonment, a turning or reorientation of ones
  whole life, an upward journey from darkness into
  light

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• Neo sees a black cat walk by them, and then a
  similar black cat walk by them just like the
  first one Neo Whoa. Déjà vu. Everyone
  freezes right in their tracks Trinity What did
  you just say? Neo Nothing. Just had a little
  déjà vu. Trinity What did you see? Cypher
  What happened? Neo A black cat went past us,
  and then another that looked just like it.
  Trinity How much like it? Was it the same cat?
  Neo It might have been. I'm not sure.
  Morpheus Switch! Apoc! Neo What is it?
  Trinity A déjà vu is usually a glitch in the
  Matrix. It happens when they change something.

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• Spoon boy Do not try and bend the spoon. That's
  impossible. Instead... only try to realize the
  truth. Neo What truth? Spoon boy There is no
  spoon. Neo There is no spoon? Spoon boy Then
  you'll see, that it is not the spoon that bends,
  it is only yourself.

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• Agent Smith Did you know that the first Matrix
  was designed to be a perfect human world? Where
  none suffered, where everyone would be happy. It
  was a disaster. No one would accept the program.
  Entire crops were lost. Some believed we lacked
  the programming language to describe your perfect
  world. But I believe that, as a species, human
  beings define their reality through suffering and
  misery. The perfect world was a dream that your
  primitive cerebrum kept trying to wake up from.
  Which is why the Matrix was redesigned to this
  the peak of your civilization.

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• Cypher You know, I know this steak doesn't
  exist. I know that when I put it in my mouth, the
  Matrix is telling my brain that it is juicy and
  delicious. After nine years, you know what I
  realize? Takes a bite of steak Cypher
  Ignorance is bliss.