Homework from Week 25

Thursday, March 13th, 2014

"Allegory of the Cave," from Plato's Republic

1) What does the cave represent, and what does the outside world represent?

The cave represents one's own reality, the world one creates with only the knowledge has acquired. The cave is the world that is shaped by one's perception of the world, by the external stimuli detected by one's senses and thus drawn into one's consciousness. On the other hand, the outside world represents "reality," encompassing all the "information," "stimuli," and so on, that exists in the world. 

2) Socrates says that the reality of prisoner who is let loose from the cave is "more real" than the prisoners who are left behind. Do you agree with him?

If we defined the term "real" as containing more information from the external world, if "real" referred to more exposure and experiences in the outside world filled with infinite sources of stimuli, then I would agree with Socrates. The reality of a prisoner who is let loose from the cave would be more real than those of the prisoners left behind because that prisoner would have faced a wider variety of external stimuli. He would have been exposed to another perspective that would help him in redefining and reshaping his own, drawing him somewhat closer to the external reality. It doesn't really matter what initial reaction the prisoner may have. He will somehow adapt the "new information" to redraw his reality, molding it closer to his updated perspective, perception, of reality.

3) To what extent is perceiving always believing?

Perception defines each person's belief, because it is through perception that one registers external information into one's reality, one's world. What one cannot perceive, one will have difficulty believing. Many people might scoff at the possibility of a pink unicorn because they have never perceived such a creature in  this world, in their reality. However, I am pretty certain that were a pink unicorn to appear in the middle of the school tomorrow, many people in our school community at least would change their minds, or have a shaken certainty on its existence. Perception is the identifying and analyzing of the stimuli our senses capture. It is the way for our minds to collect information, either in the conscious or unconscious minds, and therefore creates and shapes our view of the world, our perspectives, our realities.