Allegory of the Cave Questions

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
The Allegory of the Cave represents how everyone can be exposed or experience the same thing, yet we may still all perceive it in a completely different way, based on our backgrounds and what we know and what we don't know.

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The shackles, the fire, and the array shadows on the cave wall are the key elements in the imagery used. 
  
3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
The allegory shows how people are learning something new, and you can't just have an idea or a thought put into your head, we all have the capability to learn, and learn in our own way. 

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
The shackles and the cave represent how sometimes we feel limited to how much we can learn, not allowing the prisoners to expand their knowledge. 


5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
Pressure from others, or the fear of the unknown are my shackles, because I know there's so much more to life, I just don't know what it takes to get there.


6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The freed prisoner was amazed by this world he never knew existed, and when he tried to share the excitement with his fellow prisoners, he was nothing but another shadow on the wall.  


7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
Once the prisoner is exposed to the real world, and realizes how how big life is compared to life in the cave. 


8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The prisoner is free once the realize that there is more to life beyond the cave. They have to leave the comfort zone, and enlighten themselves. 

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
There is definitely a distinction between appearances and reality, because you can see something one way, but once you analyze it and see it for what it really is, it might not appear as it once seemed.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
Our eye's and mind all have a different reality, reality is what you make of it.