PHIL 1101 : The Allegory of the Cave Notes.docx

• School: Northeastern University
• Department: Philosophy
• Course: PHIL 1101
• Professor: Serena Parekh

Document Summary

The allegory of the cave: liberation (cid:224) philosophy, prisoners think shadows are reality because that is all they know, prisoners assume sounds comes from the shadows, prisoners have to be forced to see reality, at first, he is bewildered and blinded, the light (aka knowledge) is painful, he gets mad as well. What the freed prisoner sees outside the cave: shadows (vague, reflections in water, people and other objects, the sun and he figures out that this is the source of what can be seen, he then fells happy and pity for the prisoners left behind, returns back to the cave (cid:224) he doesn"t see very well and he is weaker and different than everyone else, he tries to free the other prisoners and bring them out of the cave, socrates thinks the people in the cave would try to kill him, plate believes people cannot handle philosophy (socrates got convicted in his trial)