The allegory of the cave
you will need to reread Plato’s, “The Allegory of the Cave” on pages 865-875 in A World of Ideas.
Write a well-developed essay in response to ONE of the following prompts:
1.) Analyze Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave” for its strengths and weaknesses. Consider what the allegory implies people living in a world offenses and for what might lie behind that world. To what extent are people like (or unlike) the figures in the cave? To what extent is the world we know like the cave?
2.) In what ways would depending on the material world for one’s highest moral values affect ethical behavior? What is the connection between ethics and materialism? Write an essay that defends or attacks materialism as a basis for ethical action? How can people aspire to the good if they root their greatest pleasures in the senses? What alternatives do modern people have if they choose to base their actions on non-materialistic, or spiritual, values?What are those values? How can they guide their ethical behavior? Should they?
3.) Plato is concerned with the question of how we know what we know.Examine the fundamental questions that Plato raises, and discuss how and why probing the answers to these questions can alter our perceptions.
4.) Explore Plato’s allegory in reference to his idea of truth. According to Plato,what is truth? Who has access to the truth? How does one gain access to this truth?
5.) If you have your own topic that you would like to explore in this essay in reference to Plato’s Allegory, please email me and we can discuss it. Be sure to adhere to the following requirements:
1.) Follow MLA formatting guidelines.
2.) Use at least three quotes from the text to support your position.
3.) The essay must be a minimum of three full pages.
4.) Do not use 1st (I) or 2nd person (you/your).
Make sure that you have a strong thesis that responds to the prompt, and focus on staying on topic throughout your paper.
You must use at least three quotes with parenthetical citations in your essay; these quotes must support your thesis/argument.
You must also have an introduction and conclusion, you should focus on a developing a strong thesis and supporting that thesis with strong, well developed, and well supported body paragraphs.
You must also write a minimum of 3 full pages of text, or I will consider your essay incomplete and it will not receive a zero out of the one hundred points possible. Follow MLA formatting but you do not need a Works Cited page
