Reflection

Walden University

Introduction to philosophy

PHIL 1001

How can you prove weather at this moment we are sleeping, and all our thoughts are a dream; or weather we are awake, and talking to one another in the waking state? Plato

For this reflection I founded it fascinating to consider different understanding of reality, I really enjoyed Plato Alegory of the cave amazing piece of art work what a great philosopher for that time period, also movie Matrix great movie directed by Wanch brothers. So questions we can all ask ourselves: Are things we see around us real, are they our reality, and how do we know that for sure, how do we know if we are dreaming or not. These are questions that unfortunately are out of our reach and only time will answer.

The Alegory of the cave is a famous story from the Plato Republic, it is a profound allegory with many interpretation, and in this reflection I will compare it to the movie Matrix, and my view of reality. “ Imagine the condition of men living in a sort of cavernous chamber underground, with an entrance open to the light and a long passage all down the cave. Here they have been from childhood, chained by the leg and also by the neck, so that they cannot move and can see only what is in front of them, because the chain will not let them turn their heads. At some distance higher up is the light of a fire burning behind them, and between the prisoners and the fire is a track with a parapet built along it, like a screen at a puppet show, which hides the performers while they show the puppets over the top.”(Solomon, 2010, p. 121). Prisoners lived this life since childhood they are bound with chairs but they are fed with illusions which kept them in dream state. The shadows on the wall made prisoners believed and kept them unaware of the fact that they are prisoners, so they don’t know what is life outside of that cave because they have never seen it or experiencing it. Shadows on the wall that prisoners are seeing are real for them, that is there reality and they believed in it. Prisoneres were not able to see the truth, but the fire in the cave is the sighn of light or small aspect of truth. Only one prisoner was able to see beyond that and experience different side of life. Here we can also see that truth was reative to the experience, because when prisoner returned to the cave no one believed him, although he knows what truth is it was relevant just for him because he is the one who had experiencing it. For Plato what he believed in our everyday experience is just a shadow and illusion, the real world is beyond that. So question in this life is it real are we awake or sleeping in it. Plato did not believed in the idea that the world we see is reality he tought that the world we see is just illusion of things. He strongly believed in mind and inteligents as a tool to see real things. According to Plato we can not teach reality, no one could be tought people had to see it for them selves. The only thing we can do is to direct them by people or someone who has been there already. With this Alegory what Plato is trying to tell us that all humans are prisoners of society. The ones who ask questions that can be more to this life then just shadows are intelectuals and they know that truth is not always obvious and in front of us. Plato view on the level of reality is that thinking critically and logically is number one in philosophy, he also believed that true knowledge and opinion can often be very different.

Matrix what a fantastic piece of art work directed by Wachowski brothers, the film looks at the perception of reality, the Matrix story is closely similar to allegory of the cave, the idea is the same. So for example, in the movie Matrix Neo was traped in the illusion although he things it is real because he does not see anything else. First when he seas the matrix he cannot believe it eventually he accepts the truth later on. So in the matrix people belived reality is the computer program because they lived in it. Same with cave, shadows of the wall that prisoners are seeing were real for them. In the Matrix humans think that they live free but robotic machines have englaving humans as living battery cells. Prisoners and people in Matrix are behind from true reality, they believe it is real because there sences are telling them so. In his Allegory Plato tries to explain relasionship between ignorance and knowledge, prisoners are ignorant because they know only one way and they don’t want to try to broaden their minds. Plato highly belived in logic, for him pure knowledge and truth could be reached only thru logic, mathematics and reasons, He want to seek knowledge beyond what we already know.

Question is did Plato intend for the Allegory of the Cave to have an ethical implicationor was it relevant just to human perception of reality and metaphisics. I thing Alegorry is subject to moral interpretation and ethical dilemas as well. For example, lets take a look at shadows they are passing falls knowledge to the prisoners and that could be unethical, another unethical dilemma that we can look at, escaped prisoner was killed by other prisoners when he returned and revealed the truth, then again moral duties nad obligations that escaped prisoner had towards others to make them aware of the truth he has just discovered. In this two documents we can also see that not all people are treated equally we can see that some are fit to be rule and others are are fit to be rulled. In the matrix character Cybher betrayed his friend for shelphish goal and lied so how we shall behave and conduct.

Do we live in the matrix or cave I believe that our matrix is in our hands and mind and we can creat it, I think if we believe in all of the media, government and religion then we are placing ourselves in matrix and does it become our falls reality. My point on reality from this class that I am taking is that not always what is directly in front of us is true and real. To get a true knowledge we have to use new perspective. Lots of times majority can be wrong, so should our society be organized on the basis of majorit then? As we can see in Allegory prisoners symbolizes with the majority of the people, for prisoners shadows are perceived as real and most of us believe that everything we hear, smell, tast is real we don’t question appearance and we don’t examine furthere. Are we able to subject our beliefs and ideas to critical exam and extantion. Most of us spend our lives in the cave limited by fear, time and afraid to change.

Ancient Greek philosopher, Socrates student who wrote The Republic and great story Allegory of the Cave, he shows as what is needed to achieve prfect society. I think one very important thing to remember above nad beyond us is God, when it comes to reality it is our individual perception of it, there are lots of things that we can not see and that we can not explain. I have realized that I and rest of us live in a cave of ignorance nad half truth until we go out and walk in other places and other shoes.

Has my knowledge base grown with this class and in which area. Deffinetely God I have read some of the worlds greathest thinkers and their work. This class tought me how to analyze arguments and use critical thinkinking skills even better. It has helped me in developing thinking skills, it has tought me how to think correctly and to use language carefully, which improved my interpersonal relacionships. With this class I become more aware of my responsibilities to contribute back to our society. Another questioned asked, which insides have I gained about my beliefes and did my philosophy changed? Honestly I have learned a lot about life and I become aware that I need to use critical thinking skills to determine truth for my self not just assume that something is right because majority things so . I was trying to understand our purpose in life and had compared differen philosophers and there view about life and living. I was intellectually stimulated in mamny areas: the existence of God, our reality, the existence of existence, the nature of truth and many more. We always do apply philosophy in our life for different things but this class had challenged me in many directions, it changed me how I frame question in my mind and had made me think around the world and myself. Philosophy focuses you to think for yourself and also focuses to open your mind in many areas, the use or reason in understanding such things as the nature of reality and existence. It helped me understand the world from a greather perspective then what I use to have. My philosophy on some major issues in life did not changed but I have learned so much from each other in this class and from the smartes philosophers in world, I have learned to be open in many directions to listen carefully what every and each one of us have to say and to respect other people opinions and view about life.

To conclude my reflection, I would have to say one thing we bust be willing to live with mystery of the unknown, all truth and all knowledge is tentative, I was challenged to self examine my life: we think that we know but do we, are we morals, we think that we live free but do we. Lot more questions that we can ask the most importan think is to be open minded, respectvul of otheses ideas nad belives, use logic don’t assume, use reason to examine and challenge always challenge ourselves educate and stay positive as one of our philosopher stated “Someday,in the distant future, our grandchildren's grandchildren will develop a new equivalent of our classrooms. They will spend many hours in front of boxes with fires glowing within. May they have the wisdom to know the difference between light and knowledge”

References

Solomon, R. C. (2010). The big questions: A short introduction to philosophy (8 ed.). Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth.