Blog 2: The Allegory of the Cave Through History

            From the years before the 14^th century, People around the world, especially in Europe believed that the Earth was flat, and that if ships were to sail too far into the ocean, they would fall off the edge of the “table,” never to be seen again. At this point in history, people would not accept any other explanation for the earth’s flat appearance and the ideology was a part of the culture. It was only when explorers challenged this ideology that people began to realize that the earth was curved. This illusion in society at the time was so embedded into history, that if anyone were to say otherwise, they would be arrested, tortured, and put to death for tyranny and other various accusations.

            In the Allegory of the Cave, Socrates explains that if the man who lived in the cave were to turn back and tell his cave friends what he has discovered, that no one would believe him, and condemn him to death. This allegory directly relates to the pre-14^th century belief of the flatness of the Earth. Where people were so afraid of the truth that many didn’t want to believe anything else other than what they knew, or in essence the European cave.

            Many people didn’t like the idea that the earth was curved. But these similar ideologies pop up all the time. For instance, many people think, and were taught that there is only one universe. Nowadays people are challenging that ideology, and many people don’t want to believe in the thought of there being more than one universe, let alone an infinite amount of universes. Even though the punishments for being open-minded nowadays are very much less risky, People will still believe what they want to believe.

Summer : Plato's Allegory of the Cave

     Plato's Allegory of the Cave is an excerpt from "The Republic." In this short story, Plato, a Greek Philosopher tells of Socrates and his student Glaucon, about men that are held prisoner in a cave. These men were born and raised in this cavernous den, only to see nothing but each others shadows. Plato continues to say that these men have accepted that this cave and its shadows, are their reality 

     One man in particular challenges the cave, and seeks out the light outside it, to find that beyond the cave walls, there are actually people, and an entire world outside of what he once knew. Socrates goes on to tell Glaucon that the man will have doubts on what is real and what is not and wonder whether to tell his cave buddies. In the end, the enlightened cave man will be sentenced to death if he went back to enlighten the others. 

Blog 1 : The Cave and I

The Cave and I. Blog #1

                I us-to believe when I was about 13 years old, that Reincarnation was what happened to someone after death. A theory that when one passes away their soul is carried to another body or shell and brought back to life again in a different form or being of the same species. Reincarnation is a popular belief, and I follow that line of thinking, up until about a year ago.

                As the years went on I thought more and more about it. I contemplated that no matter how practical and simple reincarnation can be. I discovered that it’s not possible. Millions of people are born every day. And only so many people are dying at the same time. These thoughts changed the way I saw reincarnation both as a belief and as a substitute for what death really was. I now believe that everyone has only one life in this universe, and that once someone passes away, they are gone forever. Whether they go somewhere else is a different story.

                I have lived in the cave of this belief for a while, however I still remain in this cave. Since I will never know, nor fully understand death, and what happens after death, I am still left in the dark with only a belief to clutch onto.  As far as my life here on this earth, I along with everyone else is stuck in this planetary sized cave, because none of us know what death is, and what happens after one dies.