Western Civilization Essay: Week 4

                                   "1. What was the disagreement Socrates had with the Sophists?"

   Socrates disagreed with the Sophists concerning right and wrong.  The Sophists believed that what is right for you may be wrong for me and what is wrong for you may be right for me.  They thought that there was no truth and that there was no firm idea of what was right and what was wrong.  Socrates on the other hand, believed that the Sophists were harming the people with their beliefs and that the Sophists would raise the children of Athens to be corrupt.  This was the disagreement between Socrates and the Sophists.

                                             "2. What was Plato's point in his allegory of the cave?"

    In Plato's allegory of the cave he talks about men chained in a way that they can only stare at a wall.  Puppeteers behind them cast shadows on the wall and these images are the only things they see.  They may see a shadow and call it a cup but they are only seeing shadows.  They do not know what the true things are.  To them these are real.  Now we see a man escape from his chains.  He ventures out into the real world and gains knowledge and sees that what the people in the cave see are only shadows and if they want to find the real things they must go out of the cave and find them.    
    Now that I have given you some background, here is Plato's point in the allegory of the cave.  Plato was trying to get across that unless we "leave the cave" so to speak, we will never find the truth.  We cannot learn the truth by sitting in chains and looking at shadows.  We must go out and discover "what casts the shadows."
  
    Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think!