... philosophers in their time and they still are today. Like all leaders, Socrates and Plato had their strengths and weaknesses. These strengths and weaknesses worked to balance each one of their lives. Nobody can be strong without being weak at some point in time. Socrates greatest strength was his integrity. In the passage Apology, Socrates states many times that he has always been ... as wise as he was, he couldn"t see his own footsteps. Plato greatest strength was his ability to learn from his teachers and then draw his own conclusions while writing down his thoughts. Unlike Socrates, ...

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• Grade Level: High School

... from one who has already experienced something it is more believable than someone with no experience or just insight on a subject. Plato described this experience ascoming out of the cave and into the light.? A person's childhood could be considered being in the cave and coming into the light could be college life because it's a whole new world that you slowly learn to adjust to. When an individual experiences ... opportunities given to them its like slowly receiving light and when a personreturns to the cave? they may give their audience a glimpse of the light. Plato's work relates to ...

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... philosophy, moral psychology, epistemology, and metaphysics. The Metaphor of the Divided Line also created by Plato represents the levels of knowledge one can obtain. From this metaphor comes the Forms, and how the understanding of this Forms and applying them will help society. In his theory Allegory of the cave he explains the reason why society needs to be educated, sees the good in people and says the "bad" actions one commits are ... not necessarily bad but pure ignorance to which can be changed by education. Plato's philosophy was influential to many of his students and during the...

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• Grade Level: High School

... action. This creates a nature of illusions that threaten society. Plato refers to this as his theory of Mimesis, or imitation. Plato discusses his theory of mimesis in his "Allegory of the Cave" in Book VII of The Republic. The allegory tells of prisoners being chained to a wall in a dark cave. Behind the prisoners is a high wall and a fire. Between the wall and the fire is a group of actors holding stick puppets. The prisoners can only see ... the shadows cast by the puppets, therefore their entire reality is ... ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is Book VII in his much larger work, The Republic. The Allegory of the Cave is a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, the former telling us what he believes about reality and how we have a false interpretation of reality. It is an extended metaphor full of symbolism. All of the objects in the story mean something, and can be applied to the world we live in. Socrates starts his story by describing an ... their wall which they believe to be reality. They are trapped in the part of the cave where untruth, or unreality exists. The voices are those of the instruc...

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• Grade Level: High School

Plato's Allegory of the Cave is Book VII in his much larger work, The Republic. The Allegory of the Cave is a conversation between Socrates and Glaucon, the former telling us what he believes about reality and how we have a false interpretation of reality. It is an extended metaphor full of symbolism. All of the objects in the story mean something, and can be applied to the world we live in. Socrates starts his story by describing an ... their wall which they believe to be reality. They are trapped in the part of the cave where untruth, or unreality exists. The voices are those of the instru...

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• Grade Level: High School

In Plato's work "The Simile of the Cave", Socrates talks about such themes as ignorance of men, and enlightenment. You can compare this to everyday life, but I think he was talking about politics. He says " Society will never be governed either by the uneducated, who have no knowledge of the truth the intellectuals will take no practical action of their own accord, fancying themselves to be out of this world in some earthly paradise." He believes that the current people who are living and running society, are blinded by their idea of what is right, and have no will to change their views. It's ...

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In Plato's parable of the misgoverned ship to a poorly run city government he believes that the ship, Athenian democracy, is headed for destruction. Each person is acting in his own interest's not keeping in mind what he is best for the entire crew. The captain on the ship is physically stronger and bigger then all others onboard the ship, but his hearing, eyesight and knowledge of seafaring are ... can not comprehend thoughts of true forms. Adeimantus went from making fun of Socrates in the paragraph before to agreeing with everything Socrates says in fragments of sentences for the next coupl...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... themselves being forced to catch up. More than 2000 years ago, Plato wrote "The Allegory of the Cave" which contemplates the process of change and the acceptance of it. The views Plato expressed in his writings can still be used to describe the world today. Everyone begins in the dark. We enter this world a blank slate where our parents and the formal education system nurture, protect, and try to prepare us for ... life. After we finish school and move out of our parent's home ... he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow prisoners, do you not suppose th...

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... Homer, as we can see in Book Twenty-Two of The Odyssey, based most of his poetry on emotion. Although Homer has withstood the test of time over the past few centuries, his poetry is a prime example of why Plato wouldn't allow him or any other artist as part of his perfect society. Plato's first argument with art is the simplicity of truth. Plato's ideas about truth begin with nature. Nature and only ... nature, which is created by God, can achieve the true definition of the truth. Following nature, Plato believed in God's choice to create makers. Makers are not the truth, but the maker'...

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... to each form. He says that the happier person would exist in the ideal society and the unhappier person would exist in the further degeneration of the ideal, which would be tyranny. The structure of Plato's society is made up of three parts and is hierarachichial. It's made of the philosophers kings as the rulers, the auxiliaries who will be in military role, and the artisans who will produce the products and goods necessary for economic ... growth. The philosopher rulers duties as administrators in Plato's? society or ... ...

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... Homer, as we can see in Book Twenty-Two of The Odyssey, based most of his poetry on emotion. Although Homer has withstood the test of time over the past few centuries, his poetry is a prime example of why Plato wouldn't allow him or any other artist as part of his perfect society. Plato's first argument with art is the simplicity of truth. Plato's ideas about truth begin with nature. Nature and only ... nature, which is created by God, can achieve the true definition of the truth. Following nature, Plato believed in God's choice to create makers. Makers are not the truth, but the maker'...

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• Grade Level: High School

... figures all agree state exist for people's common good, they have different angle of the nature and purpose of the state. Plato believes in a perfect government type for state and stresses the importance of state unity. Different from Plato, Aristotle thinks state is the highest stage of human community and doesn't think unity is that important as Plato says. Aquinas in some way remain and add Aristotle's thoughts into Christianity. Besides ... direct their path. In other words, Aquisnas thinks the state does not aim at the highest good, but the Church can direct the highest good for pe...

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... to mean equality, in oligarchies, again inequality in the distribution of office is considered to be just, " says Aristotle (Hacker 91). Plato sees the justice and law as what sets the guidelines for societal behavior. Aristotle puts emphasis on the institution of the polis (Hacker 77). This institution is not the state or society merely the larger unit of the two (hacker 77). Neither Plato nor Aristotle found it to be necessary to ... allow political participation on the part of the average citizen (Hacker 80). This contradicts Plato's theory of one ruling class controlling the politic...

• Word Count: 1212
• Approx Pages: 5
• Grade Level: High School

... to mean equality, in oligarchies, again inequality in the distribution of office is considered to be just," says Aristotle (Hacker 91). Plato sees the justice and law as what sets the guidelines for societal behavior. Aristotle puts emphasis on the institution of the polis (Hacker 77). This institution is not the state or society merely the larger unit of the two (Hacker 77). Neither Plato nor Aristotle found it to be necessary to ... allow political participation on the part of the average citizen (Hacker 80). This contradicts Plato's theory of one ruling class controlling the politica...

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... long time ago and who actually thought of the things they talked about, and not only remade someone else's thoughts. I chose Plato and Aristotle because they were the first and they really came up with their theories. To compare the political theories of two great philosophers of politics is to first examine each theory in depth. Plato is probably the first writer of political philosophy, and Aristotle is recognized ... making it a perfect society. He just wants to improve it. Rather than to produce a vision of the perfect society like Plato did, Aristotle suggested that the society its...

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... of important matters (Plato uses the example of women and children to illustrate his point). However, this lack of order does not encourage the development of well-balanced characters, as Plato demonstrates. Platonic psychology supports the view that any mind should be made up of three hierarchical levels: the desires and emotions being the lowest tier; the character, as decided by upbringing occupies the intermediate tier; and reason is at the top of the hierarchy. Plato further divides the ... desires into two categories: the necessary, acquisitive desires (i.e., those that ... ...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... things; it can be revealed through empirical evidence. You can not deny it because you can sense it. Plato would argue that he focuses too much on the world of shadows, which is based on appearances, rather than the world of light, which is based in thought. 2) How do we learn truth? Socrates believed that truth could be attained by questioning people and situations thoroughly ... also Socrates, believes that women can also obtain truth. Plato said that there was some truth in every person. In the Republic, his idea of a just society would hold that only the philosopher kings possess th...

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... the guardians (supreme philosophers) are at the top of the order and everyone else in the state is below them taking heed to their guidance and wisdom. The general state would be conditioned to concede to the ways of the guardians so that everyone would benefit within society and live peacefully. Plato's idea of having the guardians as the chosen ones to oversee the state in "The ... Republic" is because they are the ones filled with wisdom and the possessors of ... their needs. When comparing "The Republic" and "The Leviathan," Plato and Hobbes have some significant differences in the...

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• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... , a constitutional government. After much comparison, he believed that the latter type of government worked the best for most people. Aristotle went on to be a tutor for Alexander the Great. Aristotle, unlike Plato, was not focused or concerned about the idea of a perfect society, instead he wanted to improve upon the one that he was part of during his existence. Rather than develop a framework for a ... wasn't necessary. He believed that society was at its optimum and you can only improve upon the existing one. Both Plato and Aristotle were two men who envisioned methods on ways to impr...

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... stated in the book Plato's view of a democracy (Government Present today) is the rule of a wealthy few. Why does Plato view this as a bad form of government? The leader of a society is rich, therefore he only makes laws and or rules that apply to his type of people (the rich.) An example of this happening today would be the president of the U.S. If he has a lot of money he will be heard by the citizens of the U.S. The more money ... he has the more ... ...

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... think freely we accept these illusions as reality. Very few of us have the strength and courage to step out of this cave, step out of the role assigned to us and let our experiences decide who we really are. One of Hawthorne's underlying message is in the Scarlet letter is that, as human beings we are capable of sins and from these sins we learn and gain valuable ... she is, to pretend that it never happened would mean denying a part of herself. This is reinforced in chapter twelve in a conversation with pearl: Hester character represents the very few people in the society who are brave...

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... of the guidelines and characteristics of love are wise, some may not apply to modern society. The writing serves as a pamphlet that depicts some of the guidelines of love as the philosophers of Plato's time saw them. The intervention of the God's in the orations of the philosophers can be interpreted to mean the different aspects of love and their effects on people. The text goes into many characteristics about the god or gods that were love , yet for the purpose of ... this essay, it would seem relevant to stick with the guidelines and ideals that were presented ... ...

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... a magazine for Frangelico liqueur that clearly appeals to the desires and temptations of the people reading it. In Plato's Republic, he argues that politicians in a democracy to the same thing in order to gain votes. Democracy is the rule of the people. Many examples of democracies exist in the world today and most people tend to think that a country ruled by a democracy is the most enlightened and good. But how successful ... are our modern democracies? Not completely is the answer, but ... ...

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... lots of other important topics. The lessons in this parable are taught by the "guests" in the home, along with other intruders including Ethel's greedy step-children. Patrick uses each character as a symbol of people in our society. In the case of Ethel, we see a representation of someone with the vulnerability of the elderly; one who makes it her responsibility to protect the other guests in the home. The majority of the theme is unfolded during the falling ... action and the conclusion of the play, when ... ...

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