Blog Day Thirteen: The Allegory of the Cave

Today in class we went over our Egypt quiz. I did okay on this quiz, but I wish I had done better. I got three questions wrong, still got a B, which is fine. After that we started something new. Mr. Schick opened this by asking if anyone knew who the three great philosophers were. I didn't know any of them, but I learned that the three are Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Then we started to learn about the Allegory of the Cave. We were read a story to learn this allegory and I volunteered to help Mr. Schick read it. I am glad I did because it helped me comprehend the allegory better than I think listening to it would have. I read the role of Plato's brother, Glaucon. The allegory was interesting. It told about prisoners who have only be told about and taught by these shadows of images on a wall. Then one day the people controlling the images brought one of the prisoners out into the real world and the sunlight. At first the prisoner was blinded by the bright, strong sunlight. Then the prisoner's vision adjusted and he could see out into the world and everything around him. He was held out in the real world for so long that he saw how days shifted into nights. Then the people who dragged him out into the world pulled him back into the cave with his fellow prisoners. The exposed prisoner was trying to tell the other prisoner what was really out in the world, but no one would believe him. Eventually the other prisoners got annoyed by his constant mention of the "real world" that they all killed him. I thought this was quite and interesting story as it can still be compared to how people think now. I don't think I would believe someone if they said I was living in a completely false world, so why would the people in the cave believe the exposed prisoner. Yet at the same time if I was the person exposed to the real world, I think I would try to convince people that there is a better place to live in, but who no who would believe me. I think this allegory could be related to almost anything in our society tody, which is really cool since it was written so long ago.