The Allegory of the Cave (9/20)

Today we will

• Pre-write and watch a video to get ready for a hard reading.
• Read and annotate "The Allegory of the Cave," a ENG101-style reading.
• Put together a summary of the main ideas of "The Allegory of the Cave."
• Connect the symbols in the story with literal meanings.
• Give feedback to Dr. Smith's class, "Living in the Matrix," for their group summaries of "Is Google...?"

A. PRE-WRITING and VIDEO
Please answer the questions below on a piece of paper. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class.

1. The piece we are about to read and discuss, “The Allegory of the Cave,” is an important example of Ancient Greek philosophy. In Greek, “philosophy” literally means “love of wisdom.” But what is wisdom? What do you think? Why do you think people study philosophy?
2. An allegory is a story with two meanings, a literal meaning and a symbolic meaning, where the symbolic meaning serves as a mirror of the real problem or question. This allegory is about a cave. What do you know about caves? What could a cave represent? What could the phrase “to be in a cave” mean? What could the phrase “come out of the cave” mean?
3. Watch this adaptation of Plato's text:

B. ANNOTATING “THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE”

Socrates, from Wikipedia

Context for the reading: The author of “The Allegory of the Cave,” Plato, lived in Athens about 2,400 years ago. He was the student of another outstanding Athenian philosopher, Socrates. In “The Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates is speaking, and it is he who invents an allegory to help one of his students, Glaucon, understand a complex philosophical idea.

The reading is on pages 22-24 of the class packet. We will read the piece out loud, stopping to make clarifications, answer questions, and stress important ideas.

Then you will read the piece again and annotate the reading to your satisfaction. Please consult your dictionaries for any words you do not understand.

C. SUMMARIZING THE STORY
Click on the scrambled summary of "The Allegory of the Cave" HERE. Figure out what is the correct order and submit your answer as a list of numbers separated by commas (Example: 3,1, 7, 5, 12, etc.) in the Google Forms below.




Answers HERE.

D. THINKING CRITICALLY about SYMBOLS
Working in groups of three, match each symbolic element of the story with its philosophic meaning HERE. Be prepared to share your answers with the class.

E. GIVING FEEDBACK ON SUMMARY
Follow the link HERE. I will assign you a group from Dr. Smith's class. Please evaluate their responses by answering the following questions and then typing your response below their post in the Google Doc (using another color font would help for them to see it). Be nice but also be honest!

1. What has the group done well in the their summary?
2. What could the group do to improve their summary or what would you have done differently and why? 

HOMEWORK
Blog 3: In your blog, write 2-3 paragraphs that summarize the philosophic meaning of Socrates’ story—what is he trying to explain to Glaucon about the meaning of life? Follow this introduction:
In Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” Socrates tells a story to his student Glaucon to explain ...