August 29

AGENDA: 

1. Vocabulary quiz + book for 1st literature analysis
2. Work in groups to discuss and complete questions for "Allegory of Cave"


HAVE A NICE THREE DAY WEEKEND!


1. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
2. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
3. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners.
4. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or context. What are they?
5. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
6. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
7. What is Plato's attitude, deduced from this allegory, towards the so-called man?
8. Do we acquire our opinions through the influence of others? Explain.
9. Plato says it is difficult to go back down into the darkness after one has seen the light, but one must. Why?
10. How are we to know that this reality is realer than that of the caves? What if WE ARE the shadows?
11. How are human beings' knowledge of goodness, reality and truth always be limited by our fear of new ideas and new perspectives?
12. Do you agree with Plato that the intellectual is doomed always to be at odds with popular belief and thinking? If so, why? If not, why not?