...Conservation Theory and Management | Cave Formation and the Ecosystem Within | By: Robert Luncsford | | The formation of a cave begins when rainwater falling through the atmosphere absorbs carbon dioxide causing it to become acidic. The rainwater then passes through the soil collecting more carbon dioxide from dead plant life and animals. The acidity allows the rainwater to chemically react to limestone or dolomite rock which starts the formation of caves through a process called chemical erosion. Physical erosion then takes place as the cave becomes larger and water flows through it washing away rocks and sand, and after thousands or even millions of years large caves are formed. There are four main types of cave classifications, since not all caves are formed through that one process, the process mentioned above forms what is known as a Solution Cave. Lava Caves are another type that is formed when the outer surface of a lava flow cools while the molten lava within continues to flow and eventually flow out. Sea caves are formed by waves eroding away the shores of large lakes and oceans. Glacier caves are the last main type of cave which is formed by melt water that causes drainage tunnels through the glacier. On our last forestry management class field trip we visited a solution cave that formed just west of Licking Missouri. During our trip we observed many interesting sights and types of wildlife who had formed their own ecosystem completely separate from...
Words: 1220 - Pages: 5
...I am sorry I have not written home in a while, but we have been so busy here recently. We have found a cave here in South Africa that is so hard to access that petit women are the only people able to reach it. We are calling the site Rising Star Cave. Lee Berger is the head paleoanthropologist working on the site and he has decided to do something completely new with our research. He came up with the idea to publicize the whole process instead of waiting to publish our finds, so now the public is able to follow everything we do as it happens over social media. You can follow our excavations on Twitter and Facebook if you want to see what I have been up to. We are even being filmed by a film crew for a documentary! You would not believe what we have to do to get down into the chamber where all the fossils are. We obviously could not widen the passages in the cave for fear of damaging the bones and ruining the site so only certain people are able to go down into the chamber. There are certain times where we have to crawl on our bellies with our arms outstretched just to get through, at one point there is an opening that is only eight inches...
Words: 747 - Pages: 3
...The Allegory of the Cave is Plato's explanation of the education of the soul toward enlightenment. He sees it as what happens when someone is educated to the level of philosopher. He contends that they must "go back into the cave" or return to the everyday world of politics, greed and power struggles. The Allegory also attacks people who rely upon or are slaves to their senses. The chains that bind the prisoners are the senses. The fun of the allegory is to try to put all the details of the cave into your interpretation. In other words, what are the models the guards carry? the fire? the struggle out of the cave? the sunlight? the shadows on the cave wall? Socrates, in Book VII of The Republic, just after the allegory told us that the cave was our world and the fire was our sun. He said the path of the prisoner was our soul's ascent to knowledge or enlightenment. He equated our world of sight with the intellect's world of opinion. Both were at the bottom of the ladder of knowledge. Our world of sight allows us to "see" things that are not real, such as parallel lines and perfect circles. He calls this higher understanding the world "abstract Reality" or the Intelligeble world. He equates this abstract reality with the knowledge that comes from reasoning and finally understanding. On the physical side, our world of sight, the stages of growth are first recognition of images (the shadows on the cave wall) then the recognition of objects (the models the guards carry) To understand...
Words: 4812 - Pages: 20
...Aylin Vargas English 1301-416 Allegory of the Cave Annotation The son of a wealthy and noble family, Plato (427-347 B.C.) was preparing for a career in politics when the trial and eventual execution of Socrates (399 B.C.) changed the course of his life. He abandoned his political career and turned to philosophy, opening a school on the outskirts of Athens dedicated to the Socratic search for wisdom. Plato's school, then known as the Academy, was the first university in western history and operated from 387 B.C. until A.D. 529, when it was closed by Justinian. Unlike his mentor Socrates, Plato was both a writer and a teacher. His writings are in the form of dialogues, with Socrates as the principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in...
Words: 3704 - Pages: 15
...Nicolas Ceccacci March 11, 2016 Philosophy 101 Michael Candelaria Philosophy Midterm Paper What does the allegory of the cave suggest about the nature of education? The allegory of the cave is supposed to be a metaphor for the world we are living in. That finding this truth or overall good is how people will be able to gain the most knowledge. Socrates is explaining to his student, Glaucon, how he believes it’s our own ignorance of goodness and truth that will prevent a man from gaining this nature of education. What Socrates fails to mention in my own opinion is how this allegory supports a role in the nature of education. In my essay I want to go over what my interpretations are of this allegory and how it’s structured to represent our learning throughout our life. This will lead to my argument explaining how irrelevant this metaphor is simply because it is an allegory. For my second argument I will mention how I disagree with Socrates views on the nature of our education. For the last part of my argument, I want to go over what I believe is also involved with the nature of our education, not being just the “Good”. I want to briefly go over what exactly this allegory represents to me. By establishing my understanding towards what the allegory means, I can hopefully strengthen my future points that I am making. It is obvious that Plato structured this allegory to represent the divided line that separates what we know from our senses and our mind. The allegory...
Words: 1756 - Pages: 8
...PLATO'S ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE (FROM PLATO'S "REPUBLIC", BOOK VII, 514a-c to 521a-e) [ Note : interpolated comments in green ] And now, I said, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened : -- "Behold ! , human beings living in a underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den. Here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets." "I see". "And do you see", I said, "men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall ? Some of them are talking, others silent." "You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners". "Like ourselves", I replied. "And they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave ?" "True", he said. "How could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads ?" "And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows...
Words: 3791 - Pages: 16
...The Peqi’in Burial Cave The Peqi’in burial cave was discovered in 1995 in the hills of Upper Galilee, Israel, when a road was being built, a bulldozer collapsed the roof of the cave at Peqi’in. In the summer of 1995, Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA) conducted salvage excavation . This Chalcolithic burial site revealed a geologically active cave. Stratigraphy The length of the cave was 17 metres, and width of 5-7 metres . It “consists of three units situated on three levels, sloping down from east to west” . A passageway runs from the entrance to the upper section, and the eastern side, was blocked by debris and impenetrable” . Furthermore, there was a road above the cave which archaeologists were unable to excavate due to safety concerns....
Words: 824 - Pages: 4
...principal speaker. In the Allegory of the Cave, Plato described symbolically the predicament in which mankind finds itself and proposes a way of salvation. The Allegory presents, in brief form, most of Plato's major philosophical assumptions: his belief that the world revealed by our senses is not the real world but only a poor copy of it, and that the real world can only be apprehended intellectually; his idea that knowledge cannot be transferred from teacher to student, but rather that education consists in directing student's minds toward what is real and important and allowing them to apprehend it for themselves; his faith that the universe ultimately is good; his conviction that enlightened individuals have an obligation to the rest of society, and that a good society must be one in which the truly wise (the Philosopher-King) are the rulers. The Allegory of the Cave can be found in Book VII of Plato's best-known work, The Republic, a lengthy dialogue on the nature of justice. Often regarded as a utopian blueprint, The Republic is dedicated toward a discussion of the education required of a Philosopher-King. The following selection is taken from the Benjamin Jowett translation (Vintage, 1991), pp. 253-261. As you read the Allegory, try to make a mental picture of the cave Plato describes. Better yet, why not draw a picture of it and refer to it as you read the selection. In many ways, understanding Plato's Allegory of the Cave will make your foray into the world of philosophical...
Words: 284 - Pages: 2
...Characteristics of the Cave Chapels Along with Confucianism and Taoism, Buddhism is among China’s most influential religions throughout its history. Buddhism taught the Chinese to believe in the Four Noble Truths and to follow the Eightfold Path to achieve nirvana, or a state of complete understanding with the world. Buddhism’s influences stretched to all regions of the country; it became influential enough that Emperors even commissioned cave chapels to be dedicated to Buddhism and the Buddha. The cave chapels of Yungang, Longmen, and Dunhuang, although each different, are the most famous of the cave chapels and best capture the different styles and characteristics that were used throughout that time period. The Yungang caves in the Shangxi province of China are a series of caves, mostly carved into the cliffs. The Five caves of Tanyao are the most famous caved chapels in the Yingang area. Although they are each unique in their own matter, the five caves collectively are dedicated to the five previous Tabgatch rulers (Thorpe 164). The Five Caves of Tanyao (Caves 16-20), reflect the faith in a phase of reliance on lavish imperial patronage. The history of Wei, or Weishu, records that Fa Guo, the Administrator of Monks, required monks to pay homage to the emperor, declaring "the person who has the ability to advocate Buddhist faith is our sovereign. I am not paying homage to the Emperor but to Buddha" (Karetzky 145). The Five Caves of Tanyao were executed...
Words: 1479 - Pages: 6
...Werner Herzog’s movie, Cave of Forgotten Dreams, is the first glimpse of the Chauvet caves of Southern France. Chauvet caves are home to the oldest known pictorial creations of humanity, which dates back around 32,000 years ago. The scientists who found the Chauvet caves in 1994 made a huge discovery about our ancestors. They found a cave that has been perfectly preserved for over 20,000 years. Werner Herzog was given limited access from the French government that immediately cut off all access to it to go inside the Chauvet cave to examine the ancient paintings and artifacts left behind. This film helps open the audience’s eyes and reminds us of the world of mystery outside of our normal lives. Werner Herzog’s enterprise is to educate, to document, and to entertain the public on this impactful discovery. The cave has so many mysteries, which still have yet to be solved. Because of strict regulations to preserve the cave, there may be many more discoveries to be found. For example, we may find the whole painting of the bison-woman on a stone pendant. I had never heard of the Chauvet caves before class and never truly understood what stood in them. The film portrayed the cave to be quite majestic and huge in size. The images of the cave are all pretty amazing especially since they are in a ideal condition. The images show that early Homo sapiens had complex aesthetic process when they painted. The paintings convey the complex and creative thinking and imagination in our ancestors...
Words: 447 - Pages: 2
...Plato - Allegory of the cave In Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave”, prisoners have been chained up in a dark cave for most of their lives and can only look at a wall without any access to the outside world. Behind them is a roadway used by travelers and behind that is a fire that casts shadows on the wall the prisoners look at. They know nothing else in life except these shadows. In the allegory, one of the prisoners is released and he is blinded by the light outside the cave. As his vision slowly clears however, he explores the new world and he is able to see the truth, the very thing he knew wasn’t true. When the prisoner ran back to the cave to tell the other prisoners, they didn’t believe him. This allegory is a symbol for the contrasts between ideas and what we perceive as reality. For example, Plato would argue that ideas transcend the physical world. Think of a cup. That cup could fall on the ground, it could crack, break... eventually it won't exist anymore. However, the idea of the cup will go on forever. The idea, once thought of, cannot be undone. It cannot be broken or tainted. Plato also argues that we are the cave slaves. We live in a world of shadows, where we don't see the reality of ideas. We see the cup that can be broken, the shadows of ourselves. However, it is possible to climb out of the cave, to be released from our shackles, but the process is painful. When the cave slaves (ourselves) climb from the cave (perceive and understand ideas), we see the world...
Words: 641 - Pages: 3
...Plato’s Allegory of the Cave Plato’s allegory of the cave is a famous piece derived from his book the Republic. The cave is famed to be a conversation between Socrates, Plato’s respected mentor, and another one of Socrates’ followers, Glaucon. Additionally, Plato’s allegory is meant to be a depiction of the effects of education on society and Plato expresses his abhorrence with how society has ultimately ostracized philosophers out of ignorance of the philosopher’s teachings. The philosopher’s teachings are attempts to enlighten the prisoners who are bound by chains so they can vicariously experience the true good in the world. Socrates, in this conversation with Glaucon, paints a picture describing a world where people are born as chained prisoners that are forced to stare at a cave wall their entire life. Moreover, there is a fire shining behind them that reflects onto the cold stone wall. Behind the fire, guards pass holding artifacts that cast the statue shadows onto the wall and the prisoners play memorization games identifying these forms as “trees, men, and women”. However, one prisoner is freed and begins to look around the cave. For the first time, the prisoner sees the blazing fire and the actual artifacts that used to be only dim, memorized shadows. To the prisoner’s dismay, he is dragged out of the cave and into the scorching sun. He squirms and shrieks from the pain of the overwhelming light. Eventually, the torture fades as his eyes strengthen and he discovers...
Words: 713 - Pages: 3
...attraction, based on current trends. This two destination is under one attraction which is Ecotourism but difference examples. The two places that had been choose is Kelam Caves at Perlis and Batu Caves at Selangor. Gua Kelam is one of limestone's cave in the Setul Formation in Nakawan Range and was maintained by Perlis Forestry Department since 1997. Gua Kelam are also located in Wang Mu Reserve Forest with area coverage of 2000 hectares and was gazetted as a part of Perlis State Park in 3 July 2008 under the Section 10(1) State Forestry Enactment (Application) 1987. Kaki Bukit town is nearest town which is 500 metres from the cave. It's a 370-metre long limestone cave called Gua Kelam (Cave of Darkness). It located about 33 km north of Kangar, the state capital. The only path to the cave is via an eight-foot wide wooden suspension bridge. This bridge links Kaki Bukit to the Wan Tangga Valley, a valley on the opposite end of Gua Kelam. Kelam Cave Management Unit was placed under the State Parks, Perlis Forestry Department and operates on Tuesday to Sunday from 8.00 am to 5.00 pm. On Monday, Kelam Cave is closed for operation to carry out maintenance works in the building and surrounding area. A total of 8 workers were deployed here to ensure the smooth running Kelam Cave. Since the opening of the Dark Cave at the beginning of 2008, the place is...
Words: 2145 - Pages: 9
...does not feel any satisfaction in doing this, or is capable of resisting it. One clear opportunity he had of retaliating was in the case of Dinias, for Dinias bullied Merlin as a child. Yet, when they met again and had matured, Merlin did not let the demons of the past affect his present. Though Merlin had the motive and opportunity to strike against his harassers, he chooses not to, and acts as a far more civilized and admirable man. 2. Choose three other characters in the book and in bulleted paragraphs (one per character) discuss how, why, and what Stewart’s tones (attitudes) reveal about human beings. Make sure your answers include her thoughts and are complete enough, with good examples, to show you read this book. In The Crystal Cave, Mary Stewart’s reveals her attitude that human superstition is ridiculous through the magician Maugan. Maugan is portrayed as a man who believes in superstition, and this later creates issues for Merlin. Vortigern was constructing a fortress, but it would not stand higher than a man’s height; Maugan manages to convince his king, Vortigern, that the blood of a man who has no father must be spilled onto the foundation of his fortress. Merlin, who they believe has no human father, is the would-be sacrifice for this deed. Stewart portrays this logic as foolish, and through Merlin, calls Maugan a “charlatan”. This shows Mary Stewart’s true feelings about superstition as well; such beliefs are only held by misled people or frauds. Stewart also...
Words: 987 - Pages: 4
...With the cultural development during the Paleolithic to Neolithic era, cave art was a writing expression, but in the form of pictures and symbols. Discovered over two hundred thousand years ago, the earliest cave markings described the past, present and the continuation of civilizations identity. With continued cultural growth, caves such as Altamira, discovered in 1879 and Lascaux, discovered in 1940 contain some of the most extravagant drawings. Even though these illustrations are footprints to the pass, archaeologists have not found the definite meaning. Nonetheless, creating many speculations and explanations for the roles that cave drawings play in the lives of those who created them. One theory, is that some caves may have been used...
Words: 321 - Pages: 2
