Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

1.) According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the cave represent?
The allegory of the cave represents humans sticking to one way of thinking and not taking the initiative to go out and make their own path. The false reality of what is the "right way" isn't actually the right way, and that there is no "right way" to do something. The cave is what holds us back in our thinking and we have imperfect representations of life which lie on a plane that one can only venture out to know.

2.) What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The key elements in the imagery are the shackles, sun, cave, voices, and shadows.

3.)What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
The allegory suggests that the process of enlightenment/ education must be something obtained through personal ambition, motivation, and strife. In order to obtain an education, you must be self aware of what you are learning, how you are learning it, and what uses you will put to it.

4.)What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of cave dwellers or prisoners?
The perspective suggested is that they are held and restrained of what they want to believe. They don't have their one true experience to help them understand which makes them reformed to what type of bubble they live in. The mentality of pessimism and restriction from the outside world, holds you back from having an open mind. In other words... THE CAVE IS A PRISON!

5.)In society today or in your own life, what sorts of thing shackle the mind?
There are  myriad's of answers that can go along with this type of question such as money, friends, feelings, resources available, people, life... and so on. What shackles my mind is actually my own insecurity of being wrong or seen as being unintelligent. I can never find the right words or ways to express my thinking so I have trouble trying to put together my words and thoughts in a way where I don't sound crazy. But for society today, I feel that the school system and media has shackled the mind. We're taught almost ALL our lives that these grades we receive will help us get into college. Now that I'm at the point in my high school life where ALLLLLL this hard work adds up, I'm honestly a little bit disappointed. The grades that are shown on our report cards and transcript do not compute nor show the true capability and potential of the students on campus. Hopefully through trial and error, schools will realize this and find an innovative way to challenge kids to suit their own mindset of thinking and learning material.

6.)Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners.
Well obviously both prisoners have came from the same place, which gives the freed prisoner a perspective to compare things from. The major difference is that the freed prisoner has now EXPERIENCED this false reality and has their own experience to bring back. But the sad thing is that those cave prisoners will NEVER understand what the freed prisoner is talking about (which is why the freed prisoner became a shadow) because experiences are something that must be felt and lived not told and heard about.

7.)According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
The two ways are ignorance and and people who want to learn and go out and experience.

8.)According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The cave prisoners get free by breaking free from the shackles whenever they want because honestly it's just a choice. The only consequence is that they will hurt themselves in the process of experiencing. This suggests that intellectual freedom is A CHOICE!

9.) The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality? Do you agree? Why or why not?
There is a HUGE difference between appearances and reality. With reality, things have almost a definite truth to what really is happening without falsely advertising anything. In comparison, appearances only show a false reality of what is really going on. Appearances are great at hiding things just like how girls like to "bottle up their emotions and act happy". No one will ever know the reality of something unless they ask and want to learn.

10.)If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
All reality is predetermined in the same fate as we think it is.