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Philosophy of the Humanities 1 - Seminar notes
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My complete seminar notes This year we read: Plato, Spinoza, Gadamer, Benjamin, Fanon, and Butler.
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Seminar 1: PlatoThe Myth of the Cave/ The Allegory of the Cave
About: Is considered the most important passage of the history of philosophy.
The setting:
Prisoners live in a cave their whole lives with their body and head chained towards one direction. There is a fire behind
them, and before the fire, there are people who hold up figures of animals, walking in turns. The prisoners would live
thinking that there’s only that much to life. But one day a man was released from his chains. He walked towards the fire and
was shocked to find out the figures aren’t real. He walked out of the cave and was blinded by the sunlight. After his eyes are
adjusted, he found out how big the world is, and questioned the meaning of life and wanted to learn more. He returned to the
cave to inform others of his knowing, but after going back in darkness he had problems seeing clearly. The prisoners would
mock him, and would think going outside is a bad thing, and would threaten him if he were to release them.
Relate to The Truman Show, The Matrix, Interstellar…
The change in use of pronouns:
He/ him: generalizing humanity.
We/ us: after the human stepped out of the cave and gained knowledge, he becomes relatable -
> refer with closer pronouns.
They/ them: think highly of himself, put himself above everyone else.
The difference between:
Aristotle Plato
(Empiricism) (Realism)
Everything is bonded to your mind, based Universal.
on your sensory experiences. Your senses can be deceiving.
Knowledge is what we see, experiment, (River is constantly changing and never
observe, taste… objective)
Innate capacity of reasoning.
The distinction between:
Opinion Knowledge
Biased, based on preference. Neutral, factual.
Compare:
Education to Stepping into the light.
People who rule the State (philosophers) to Marionettes (because Socrates said he would
choose the man).
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, The prisoners in the cave:
Their perception is determined by people who control the shadows Their reality is only
shadows/ reflected images of reality.
Saw one came back with blindness, did not see the light but only its negative consequences.
Unable to accept that there is a reality other than what they know of.
Insecurity: not wanting to consider different perspectives.
The person who returned to the cave:
Is feared and hated by the rest.
Is looked down upon for not competing in shadow guessing.
Knowledge is socially isolating.
The defect of lights: even when you’re in the light, you can still be ignorant. It is up to you to find the
right way.
You can be blind in different ways: by the change of knowledge or the lack of knowledge.
General ideas of this myth
- We are the prisoners and society shows us things that we then perceive as reality.
We have the possibility to break free like the escaped prisoner, but we don’t know that there even
is something else than we know, and we don’t want to make an effort to find out another world.
- The people in the cave think that the escaper is dumber/ less powerful because he now can’t
see the “cave-reality” anymore, while the escaper thinks the same about the cave people.
- The runner is the philosopher that knows that there’s a greater/ larger reality/ truth.
Duty of the philosophers/ Plato’s ideal leader: return to the cave to govern the State quietly, try
and spread the knowledge gained from outside world and make people see the actual reality; don’t
care about wealth or power but only wisdom.
Best thing to do for the state: happiness has to be for the whole state and philosophers therefore
have to be the benefactors of the state.
The things/reality we perceive isn’t the ultimate reality in the greater scheme of things.
Plato:
“Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was
unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement
of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learning by degrees to endure the sight of
being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.”
World of becoming = what we see but not the ultimate reality (world inside the cave).
World of being = world/reality that we can’t immediately encounter/ideal world (world
outside the cave).
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