", and discuss the story level, meaning level, and the symbolic meaning of each part in the story.
Questions to discuss before reading
- Is what you see always what you get?
- Is what you see always the truth?
- Describe an experience you have had in which something that looked true turned out to be false or looked false turned out to be true.
- How is it possible that people can believe in illusion and accept it as reality?
- What sometimes happens to people when the illusion is shattered and reality is revealed?
- Questions to discuss after reading
- Make an illustration of the cave.
- Describe other "caves" in modern life in which people might be "imprisoned" or feel "imprisoned".
- If a prisoner is released from the cave and compelled to look toward the light, what will he experience? Why?
- What are the stages of the liberated prisoner's experience outside the cave?
- If the liberated prisoner goes back to the cave and tries to explain to his former fellow prisoners, what kind of reaction will he get? Why?
- What is truth according to Plato in this allegory?
- To what extent do you find Socrates point about human tendency to confuse "shadows" with "reality" relevant today?
- What could be the elements that prevent people from seeing the truth, or regarding "shadow" as the "truth"?
- Writing Assignment
Write 250 words to discuss your ideas or personal feelings about the topics in this unit. "Seeing the light" is a common philosophical metaphor in many cultures and religions. Using what you have learned from the "Allegory of the Cave" and from your own experiences, describe a situation in which you or someone you know was liberated from "darkness" and now lives outside of the "cave". Be sure to discuss this situation in terms of sight, vision, blindness, truth, reality, illusion, good, evil, light, and dark as it is appropriate.
