Plato's Allegory Of The Cave

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Technology has always evolved alongside humans. When we learned how to make tools, we taught our children, and they made guns. When we learned to control fire, we taught our children, and they made light bulbs. When we learned to build shelters, we taught our children, and they built skyscrapers. Throughout human history, people have used education as a means of receiving knowledge. The knowledge gathered by the elders was passed onto the younger generation. Each generation utilizing the information for a greater purpose and passing on more and more information to the next generation. Throughout the millennium, we have made many discoveries to help us better understand the world we live in. Our greater understanding has led us to…show more content…
Friendship is described by Bloom, “And most of all I have friends with whom I can share thinking about… and in whom that common good of which I have just spoken” (p. 6). Plato and Powers make similar points which would lead them to the topic of many intellectual conversation. Plato makes an allegory of a cave. He makes a vivid picture of what it’s like to live in a dark cave and only know the shadows you see on the wall. He then gives an example of one person who left the cave and returns to it, but the world he sees is ignorant now. At first Plato writes, “...do you think they would believe that anything other than the shadow passing in front of them was speaking” (p. 1)? Once the man leaves the cave, he sees the sun and all the objects that were shadows on the wall in the cave. Then Plato says, “...if the time for readjustment was not short, wouldn’t he provoke ridicule” (p. 2)? Plato gives a very great example of perspective. That makes you wonder if the world we know is the truth. Powers makes a similar statement, “The greatest idea… has granted us ascendance over matter by asking not how things ought to be but how things are” (p. 21). In the cave, everyone thought the shadows were speaking, but they were too scared to leave the cave and see what was actually there. The cave represents a comfort zone. Leaving your comfort zone is a hard thing because it’s the only thing you know. When the man…show more content…
Plato states, “Then here is how we must think about these matters, if that is true: education is not what some people boastfully profess it to be. They say that you can pretty much put knowledge into souls that lack it, like putting sight into blind eyes” (p. 3). This is how America utilizes education. The government makes it mandatory to have information shoved down your throat, and eight percent of people drop out. I’ve recently seen a documentary called Race to Nowhere. In this documentary many parents and school officials address the ineffective ways we portray education in America. We assign the most homework out of any nation, yet we are still falling behind. All the countries that are surpassing us don’t assign homework. There is a clear correlation, but we are doing nothing. Bloom states, “This nation’s impulse is towards the future, and tradition seems more of a shackle to it than an inspiration” (p. 5). I think Bloom is very right. We aren’t taking huge steps towards reformation, and I think it’s our political views holding us back. Many European countries like Finland, Sweden, and Switzerland are the smartest nations in the world, yet we aren’t trying to replicate their schooling system. I think because those countries are more socialistic than America and because American’s associate socialism with communism, we choose to ignore the facts. Europe is doing better than us. “Its [a progressive

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