Escaped prisoner returns to cave to inform others of his findings. They do not believe him and threaten to kill him if he tries to free them. Cave represents people who believe that knowledge comes from what we see and hear in the world- empirical evidence. Sun represents philosophical truth and knowledge.
Q. What does the fire symbolize in the allegory of the cave?
The fire within the “Allegory of the Cave” represents the prisoners limitation to knowledge as they see it. The fire blinds them from the truth that lies beyond what they know, which gives them a false reality about the world.
Table of Contents
- Q. What does the fire symbolize in the allegory of the cave?
- Q. How does Plato in The Allegory of the Cave distinguish appearance from reality?
- Q. Who is the speaker in the apology?
- Q. Why is Plato’s Apology important?
- Q. What does Socrates mean when he says in the apology nothing bad can happen to a good man?
- Q. Why is Socrates not afraid of death in the apology?
- Q. Why was Plato sentenced to death?
- Q. What were Plato’s beliefs?
- Q. Where is Plato buried?
- Q. Which philosopher was most interested in studying the natural world?
Q. How does Plato in The Allegory of the Cave distinguish appearance from reality?
Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is a reflection on the distinction between appearance and reality. Plato argues that there is the world of appearances and there is the real world. Plato does not have a brute distinction between appearance and reality. It is not as if the world of appearances is completely false.
Q. Who is the speaker in the apology?
Summary. Socrates opens his case with an appeal to the jury to listen to him openly and to pardon him if he slips into his usual conversational style. His accusers have already spoken against him in the flowery manner common in courts of law, and have warned the jury not to be deceived by Socrates, a skillful speaker.
Q. Why is Plato’s Apology important?
It offers what many scholars believe is a fairly reliable account of what the Athenian philosopher Socrates (469 BCE – 399 BCE) said in court on the day that he was tried and condemned to death on charges of impiety and corrupting the youth.
Q. What does Socrates mean when he says in the apology nothing bad can happen to a good man?
He meant that the contemplative man of virtue can die in the most peace it’s possible to do so- because they did the least amount of harm to their fellow creatures. Socrates said in Apology he didn’t know if anything followed death.
Q. Why is Socrates not afraid of death in the apology?
In the “Apology” Socrates is on trial for crimes he has not committed. Socrates ultimately does not fear death because of his innocence, he believes that death is not feared because it may be one of the greatest blessings of the soul.
Q. Why was Plato sentenced to death?
He was found guilty of “impiety” and “corrupting the young”, sentenced to death, and then required to carry out his own execution by consuming a deadly potion of the poisonous plant hemlock. Politicians and historians have often used the trial to show how democracy can go rotten by descending into mob rule.
Q. What were Plato’s beliefs?
In metaphysics Plato envisioned a systematic, rational treatment of the forms and their interrelations, starting with the most fundamental among them (the Good, or the One); in ethics and moral psychology he developed the view that the good life requires not just a certain kind of knowledge (as Socrates had suggested) …
Q. Where is Plato buried?
Plato died in Athens, and was probably buried on the Academy grounds.
Q. Which philosopher was most interested in studying the natural world?
Plato’s Natural Philosophy: A Study of the Timaeus-Critias
- Plato and Aristotle share with us the assumption that the aim of natural science is to provide an objective description of the natural world.
- One idea that surfaces several times in the book is that Plato’s study of the natural world is ultimately motivated by an ethical concern.
