Reflection Of Socrates

Socrates discusses the good, what we can know, and what is

I. Socrates is asked to give an account of the good, but declines, saying that the best he can do is to speak of the child of the good.

II. The analogy of the sun, the eye and the world.

1. Preparatory remarks: Socrates reverts to an “old theme.”

a. He divides the world into the seen and the unseen, the one and the many.

b. This means that many visible/physical things (“the many”) can be subsumed under a single idea or concept (“the one”) which he calls “absolute” or “essence.”

c. He says that, technically speaking, we do not know the objects in the physical world, we only perceive (“see”) them. Similarly, we know but do not perceive ideas.

2. The analogy proper: Plato

Four divisions in the soul a. Answering to the highest b. Understanding to the second c. Faith or conviction to the third

d. Perception of shadows

8. Allegory of the cave, how far our nature it enlightened of unenlightened.

I. The cave: Represents individuals who believe that what we see and what we hear is true knowledge (empirical evidence), trapped in a cave of misunderstanding. a. The prisoners (three) are tied to rocks; everything is bound so they can only see the stonewall in front of them. b. They have been in the cave since their existence and have never been out c. There is a fire behind the prisoners casting a shower in front of them. The objects are carried and place behind them to cast the shadows.

9. The shadows (truth would be nothing but the shadows of images) II. Perception of those who think and believe empirical evidence guarantees knowledge. a. The prisoners believe that the shadows the objects cast were “real” as they have never seen anything else. b. Anything that moved across the fire would cast a shadow

10. Plato suggests the prisoners would play a game and try to guess what shadows would appear next, and which one following that. If one of them guest correctly the other would praise him saying he was a