Metaphysics

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Metaphysics Epistemology

• Lesson 4
• Plato and the Allegory of the Cave

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Philosophy Question of the Day!!!

• Have you ever thought that you knew something for
  certain, only to find out later that you were
  wrong?
• What was that certain belief or idea?
• What was the basis for your initial certainty?
• What caused it to be called into question?
• Do you know anything for certain now? How do you
  know for sure that you know for sure?

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• Epistemology One of the 5 branches of philosophy
  is the study of knowledge and its acquisition
• What major philosophical question is explored by
  Epistemology?
• How do we know?

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List two ways we acquire knowledge-

• Awareness- when you experience something
• Understanding- the thought process about the
  experiences
• What is Knowledge then?
• The mental combination of awareness and
  understanding

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• List two bits of knowledge that you posses-
  Anything that you have knowledge and
  understanding about.

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Allegory

• A kind of story metaphor where things in the
  story are really about/represent other things.
• Ex The turtle and the hareits a story about a
  race between the two animalsbut

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Platos Allegory of the Cave

• Make a prediction-List the properties of a cave
  and guess what the cave might represent in the
  allegory

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Platos Allegory of the Cave

• Needed One student to read for Socrates and one
  student to read for Glaucon
• Other students follow along in your packet

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Whats the Allegory of the Cave About?

• The cave
• The prisoners
• The chains holding the prisoners
• The moving shadows
• The fire
• The pain at seeing the bright light
• The sun

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The Cave

• Represents mental, intellectual, and spiritual
  confinement, a trap of ignorance, and blind faith
  or beliefs without question.

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The prisoners

• Represent people who dont want to learn anything
  new, the unconscious majority, people living in
  the chains of denial

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The chains holding the prisoners

• The means of holding the prisoners from reaching
  truth, reality

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The form holders (shadows)

• Represent established information, the status
  quo, possibly the government or other
  institutions of authority
• Teachers of half truths, hiding the truth,
  controllers, propagandists, information givers

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The fire

• Represents false reality/illusion. The life that
  the prisoners know. The prisoners have no idea
  what fire is, but it is reality as they know it.

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The pain

• Physical pain from being in the dark so long,
  mental pain from never experiencing the truth, a
  sudden change of consciousness from perceived
  truth to reality
• Change is difficult it is hard to accept the
  truth and realization of a false reality

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The sun

• Reality, truth, divine knowledge, objective
  truth, and goodness

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What is the allegory really about?

• Plato is talking about true knowledge of reality.
  Most of the time we are prisoners of our own
  culture and upbringing and expectations. We
  dont really see or experience REALITY, only
  shadows of what is really real.

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What does Plato want you to do?

• Get out of the cave.
• Understand the world and reality as it truly is.

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Apply the Allegory to Your Life

• What cave do you have in your life and how
  might you come out of it? What shackles would
  need to be removed?
• Whats the warning though?