Brianna Flanagan
PHILOS 101 Tues. 6:30-9:35pm
Enlightenment as a Choice “The unexamined life is not worth living” (Plato 35). One of the most well known philosophers of all time, Socrates, believed that the purpose of human life was spiritual growth and the betterment of one’s soul, as well as seeking wisdom and truth. Huxley’s Brave New World, Plato’s “Allegory of The Cave” and “The Apology”, depict realities in which mankind is not allowed to think freely or seek enlightenment. In Brave New World, “Controllers” rule the world to insure social stability by conditioning mankind’s thoughts, that is, what to believe, what ideas hold value, what brings happiness and even the work each citizen is destined to do in life. Society is set
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The story begins shortly after a nine year war, before the world was stable. Brave New World shifted the way it fundamentally operates to become a stable society, and live by the motto community, identity, stability (Huxley, 1). “The Apology” took place during a war on economic power. A passionate, strong willed man like Socrates threatened Athen’s social stability, and he was scrutinized for following his beliefs. These similarities demonstrate that mankind is not allowed to think freely or seek enlightenment, for they would threaten society’s …show more content…
Socrates believed there were two ways to live and and only one way to calculate value. The superficial way-believing that wealth, reputation, and honors (all exterior measures) held the real value. And on an interior level- having wisdom, truth, and the best state of your soul. The book certainly makes you question what you personally find to be valuable. In current society, happiness is almost contingent on a lack of reality. The phrase “Ignorance is Bliss” is proved to be true in many cases. People would rather be happy than aware. We are well on our way to creating our own Brave New World. Our society strives for efficiency, and speed, quantity over quality. We are driven by convenience and comfort, operating like a conveyer belt which mirrors the way humans are produced in Brave New
Plato’s allegory of the cave include the light, the objects, and the shadows. The novel named “The Picture of Dorian Grey” contains a purposeful meaning for each key component. In the cave, individuals are shown the shadows of puppets which they consider their reality; however, it’s only a “fake” representation of reality. Just as Dorian Grey’s beautiful appearance was merely a “fake” copy of himself when he was pure and innocent, it never disappeared because of his immortality. Yet, when the individuals have been shown the objects, they are skeptical about the “true” reality, not knowing that they are seeing the truth behind the shadows. Similar to the picture of Dorian Grey, which portrayed his ghastly appearance, contained his true-self
According to Pierre Hadot, “Thus philosophy was a way of life, both in its exercise and effort to achieve wisdom, and its goal, wisdom itself. For real wisdom does not merely cause us to know: it makes us “be” in a different way” ( Pierre 265) This explanation of a philosophical way of life is in all ways the definition of Socrates’ life. Socrates made his way through his entire life living in this way, seeking out wisdom, seeking out answers and never once got in trouble with the court until the age of seventy years old. He believed that by telling people about ignorance and wisdom, that he was only doing so for the good of the people. Socrates even goes as far as saying, “I am that Gadfly which God has attached to the state, and all day long and in all places am always fastening upon you, arousing and persuading and reproaching you”(Plato 9). Socrates believes that he was sent from God to show people a different way of life, a life of questioning and reason to which he should teach to all people. When asked if he was ashamed of a course of life of which would likely bring him to an untimely end Socrates says, “you are mistaken: a man who is good for anything ought not to calculate the chance of living or dying; he ought only to consider whether in doing anything he is doing right or wrong” (Plato 7).
Plato’s "Apology" gives the substance of the defense made by Socrates to the Athenians at his trial. Meletus, Anytus and Lyncon brought Socrates to court on charges of corrupting the morals of the youth, leading the youth away from the principals of democracy, neglecting the Gods of the State and introducing new divinities.
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” explains his beliefs on education of one’s soul and the core of the way they shape themselves. The rhetorical devices that Plato represents inside of his story explains how much freedom is worth in this world. The deeper meaning inside of what Plato describes can further be found out once a reader realizes the type of rhetorical devices are being used. For example, Plato portrays prisoners being locked inside of a cave without a way out. These prisoners never got to see the outside world, yet he mentions they “see shadows” which explains they are only able to catch a glimpse of reality from the outside. Plato’s use of imagery gives us a mental picture on the tease we may feel to notice reality but not be able to experience it. In reality, we do not value freedom as much as we are supposed to. We seem to not see the world as he sees it. With the help of personification, Plato uses human like characteristics to describe non-living things to give
The society uses one’s happiness to seek their own. Starting with the ancient Adam Smith’s theory of a market economy where commodities are sold and bought in a market freely, where sellers and buyers exchange to achieve profit, and happiness is derived from profit. Thus “happiness is both produced and consumed” (Ahmed 3). Happiness is a matter of research for corporates of big companies. They try to figure out which product makes the buyers feel the happiness they need, so that they can produce more for their own profit. So, they cunningly make commercials with people having a good time. Which when watched by the buyers they get the false sense that their life would be so much better if they bought that small bottle of happiness. Once they buy their “Pandora’s box” they hope that underneath all the unnecessary objects there will be happiness, but they are dispirited at the end. Unknowingly the markets are making the society a more dull and sad place rather than distributing
What is truly real, and what is not? This question is one which has been pondered deeply throughout human history, and it seemingly has no definitive answer. To understand what is truly a part of reality, and what isn’t, may be an impossible feat. However, two famous works created by humans from two distant time periods attempt to dissect and analyze this philosophical question. The first, The Allegory of the Cave, was written by the great Greek philosopher, Plato, who was born in 428 B.C. in Athens, Greece. The Allegory of the Cave is a piece of a larger work of Plato’s, The Republic, which is a collection of works concerning political philosophy. The Republic is his most famous work and what he is best known for in today’s world. The second
The meaning of happiness is a vague concept. Mankind has always tried to achieve this state of well-being, even though there isn’t a clear definition. Brave New World tells the story of a society where there is nothing but happiness, just like a utopia, but it is considered a dystopian setting by the modern society. In modern society, there is a simple road that most people follow to achieve happiness: earning enough money for education, getting a university degree, a prestigious and high-paying job, and a stable marriage. To some, the road is mostly about finding ways to earn and spend money.
The authoritarian state in Brave New World is obsessed with making people “happy” even if
Written and published during the economic turmoil of the Great Depression, and while the world was recovering from one World War and spiraling towards another, the novel depicts a society in which the primary objectives are satisfaction and stability. In light of these historical circumstances, the order Huxley portrayed would have seemed highly desirable, but his is clearly a cautionary tale. What should our priorities be… happiness and stability, or humanity? At what point does our dehumanization of citizens have serious consequences? And if we are happy, are we truly aware of the reality of our existence? John Savage’s tragic suicide would suggest not
In the contemporary world , culture refers to something as vast as the distinctive way of life of an entire community. Culture is everywhere and everyone has it; it is the mass of ideas, traditions, habits, stories, beliefs, and perspectives on life passed on to us from generation to generation through literature, language, art, myth, religion, family, and various other social institutions. Plato had many different ideas when it comes to human behavior and philosophy. Some of those things can be applied to today’s society, some of them can’t. Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, which is probably his most famous theory, as well as Krishnamurti’s essay on cultural conditioning of a mind, they both focus on cultural values and living within a culture and can still be seen in today’s society.
In the essay “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato addresses how humans generally do not pursue knowledge. Most humans are satisfied with what they already know and do not want to expand their knowledge. Plato uses simple examples to help the reader understand his logic on why humans do not expand their knowledge.
The concepts of the Utopian society placed in Aldous Huxley’s novel, A Brave New World, reflect the fearful thoughts of the future of our society and mirror certain components of the present. Certain concepts of the great society in the novel are severe and do not apply to our society, but components of these ideas are increasingly being dispersively observed throughout our present society. The warnings developed by Huxley are reflected in the present through the intellectual castes of the workforce, the concept of sex being less based on marriage, and the mind being enslaved by conditioning.
Do we really understand the world we live in and see everyday? Is our everyday perception of reality a misinterpretation, which somehow we can’t break free from? A famous Greek philosopher by the name of Plato sought out to explain this in an experiment he called the Cave Allegory. I will discuss what the Cave Allegory is as well as talk about the movie Interstellar, which is a great example of Plato’s Cave Allegory and how it relates to Plato’s ideas. The question we have to answer first is, what is Plato’s Cave Allegory?
Through my study of Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” and Saint Augustine’s “The Confessions”, I discovered that both text involve a journey of finding real truths before acquiring a faith. This suggests that faith and reason are compatible because one must embark on journey in which they are educated about real truths before they are able to acquire a faith.
For years, authors and philosophers have satirized the “perfect” society to incite change. In Brave New World, Aldous Huxley describes a so-called utopian society in which everyone is happy. This society is a “controlled environment where technology has essentially [expunged] suffering” (“Brave New World”). A member of this society never needs to be inconvenienced by emotion, “And if anything should go wrong, there's soma” (Huxley 220). Citizens spend their lives sleeping with as many people as they please, taking soma to dull any unpleasant thoughts that arise, and happily working in the jobs they were conditioned to want. They are genetically altered and conditioned to be averse to socially destructive things, like nature and families. They are trained to enjoy things that are socially beneficial: “'That is the secret of happiness and virtue – liking what you've got to do. All conditioning aims at that: making people like their inescapable social destiny'” (Huxley 16). Citizens operate more like machinery, and less like humans. Humanity is defined as “the quality of being human” (“Humanity”). To some, humanity refers to the aspects that define a human: love, compassion and emotions. Huxley satirizes humanity by dehumanizing the citizens in the Brave New World society.