Analysis Of Plato's The Allegory Of The Cave

In Plato’s, “The Allegory of the Cave” he is telling a story about Socrates and a conversation with Glaucon, Plato’s brother. In this story Socrates tells Glaucon of a cave, “Behold! Human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads” (Plato). The purpose of the cave which Socrates describes is to show that we as human beings are blind. We don’t expand our knowledge or test our beliefs. We sit with chains around our legs and necks and don’t try to test our boundaries. We are all

Many judges and civilians questioned the intentions of Socrates. They believed he was corrupting their youth and making them go against the beliefs they had been taught by the law, their state and their parents. The intent of questioning and cross-examination, which Socrates often did, was not to make people feel inferior but to make them understand the shallowness of their knowledge. Being skilled in one area, Socrates believed, does not make you wise in all tings. You must be willing to explore and desire a deeper understanding of all things. Socrates wanted Meletus to understand that he was not trying to corrupt the youth or make them deny the gods of the state, but rather, “believe in divine and spiritual agencies” that encourage virtue and doing good to all men. Socrates believed that one should not fear death and punishment if they are doing what they believe to be good, and a person cannot make themselves better by accusing, punishing, or killing a person who questions their knowledge and beliefs. They only way to improve ourselves is by taking what our accusers say about us and digging into the meaning of it. By doing this we can search for understanding and try to make ourselves better. As Socrates says, “the life which is unexamined is not worth living.”

Both of these pieces The Allegory of the Cave, from the Book VII of The

This created a Hellenistic which means Greek-like world. Alexander we must remember was a student of Aristotle; Aristotle being a student of Plato, would have helped spread philosophy into Egypt through his conquests. Alexander marched into Egypt unopposed. In fact, he was welcomed as a liberator (Cole & Symes p.124). Did they embrace Alexander so openly because they wanted to embrace his beliefs? They Egyptians were very involved in what would become of their afterlives. They worked hard to please their gods and wanted to live how they felt they were supposed to as to please Amun-Ra, the Egyptian sun