11-27-2003, 12:27 AM
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#7 (permalink)
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don't ignore this-->
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John Henry: i thought homeopathy was fighting poison with poison... maybe you're thinking of suppositories?
Anyways, I had to write a page of notes analyzing the Allegory of the Cave and how it relates to authentic experience and how it relates to the learning process. Dunno how much it'll help but here it is
Quote:
People chained in a cave with light behind them but unable to move their heads, so all they see is shadow movement. This was the setting for Socrate’s Allegory of the cave (really, attributing it to Plato is like giving a stenographer credit for an attorney’s closing statements). If this was all the people knew, and could speak with one another; they might believe the shadows were the things themselves, and if there was an echo, they might think the voices came from the shadows themselves.
If one was freed and slowly acclimated to the light, he’d at first believe his old reality was more true than their new one. Upon exposure to the sun, the freed prisoner (of the mind) would see that it was the light that cast the shadows, and defined his previous existence. Now that he’s accepted his new reality, Socrate asks, wouldn’t he then pity the others that are still living in darkness, and want to reveal the truth to them? But on returning to the shadows, his eyes would take time to readjust to the dark, and his comrades would think he’s lost vision (his mind, respect for reality, whatever due to his venture, and forbid others from leaving they cave (the cave being symbolic of their belief structure, leaving being synonymous with following the new teachings).
Socrates compares the cave to the world of sight. The fire represents the sun which exposes things to our sight, and defines the world around us in terms of vision. He then compares the same notion to the intellectual sphere (illustrated in his previous argument, ‘the divided line’), where once the soul sees the light it cannot let go of it, even if the body is returned to the darkness. Since the man came to the conclusion about the light through his own musing, Socrates claims that the capacity for learning is innate, one must simply put for effort to seek it (search for the inner light, ie the truth). Legislators who are to ascend into the light must descend back into and adjust to the darkness every now and then so he can better know the plight and mindset of his constituents; for he will not only see the shadows, he will know what they represent.
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