Plato Study Questions for Allegory of the Cave

The Allegory of the Cave in located here.

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?

The Allegory of the Cave represents an extended metaphor that is to contrast the way in which we perceive and believe in what is reality.

 2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?

The fictional metaphor of the prisoners, and the philosophical tenets in which said story is supposed to represent.

 3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?

The allegory implies that you only now what you are sheltered and brought up to know. You only see what you think you see.

 4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

The imagery suggests that the cave is your own little world and the shackles represent your own thoughts that bind you, where your mind hasn't completely seen the truth.

 5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

The things that shackle the mind can be anything really. Basically anything we are told by parents and teachers, or even our own life experiences.

 6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

The free prisoners realized that there was more to what they knew and were fascinated at the discovery of the something after wall. The prisoners didn't want to believe anything the free prisoners came back to tell them. In my opinion, they are jealous of the free prisoners and don't want to believe things that they don't know.

 7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
The allegory shows that confusion can happen when you experience something you didn't even know existed, or when something reveals its true nature despite what you knew about it previously.

 8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?

The prisoners are free as soon as they become aware of reality and the truth. They accept they are being mentally detained. They achieve their thought of understanding.

 9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

Perception is the way you think about the things you see and appearances are the way things look. They almost go hand in hand, but your thought has a lot of pull on the way you see things rather than what they actually look like.

 10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?

What I said in question 9 goes with this question.