Brenna’s Post on Book Seven or whatever VII is

The first part of book seven is Plato’s famous Allegory of the Cave. This is by far one of my most favorite pieces of philosophy (I guess that is the right way to say it). Anyways I really love it because there’s so much that can be learned from it. Its this entire idea that if you’ve been taught this one thing you’re entire life that’s all you know to be real and once you step outside to see everything else and are exposed to light you see so much more of reality, then you have to distinguish between what is really and what is not. I like it so much because I plan to be a teacher and this is something I want to do with my future students. I want the to come out of their cave and look at everything else out there,  distinguish between what is real and what is merely and illusion, challenge themselves, form their own ideas, and draw their own conclusions to find out who they truly are. I think Plato’s Cave is what made me fall in love with philosophy. 

Now back on track since I got off on a huge tangent. First thing I would like to state is Socrates reminds me of an old man who talks and goes on and on (no offense to the elderly they are adorable) but my grandpa was like this and it reminds me of him. I feel like I’m Glaucon and I’m listening to Socrates go on and on and giving all of this wisdom, answering my questions before I even ask them, and getting off subject by starting with another story. Then I am listening and I finally get to reply back with a quick question or response. Like I said no offense to elderly people but I’m reading this and it reminded me about my late grandfather and all of his stories! Second thing I want to bring up is geometry since it states in the text, “That the knowledge at which geometry aims is knowledge of the eternal,” and, “Geometry will draw the soul towards truth.” So if geometry is the supreme thing that man needs to know all I have to say is I’ll be missing out because I barely passed with a B in that class my sophomore year of high school. 

With all of that being said I like book seven much better than book four, but that probably has a lot to do with the fact that the Cave is in the book. 

I commented on Moriah and Zane's post.