Intro to Philosophy
Intro to Philosophy Midterm
The word philosophy itself means “the love of wisdom.” Philosophy stands for doing the right thing or being a “just” person. Philosophy also means to see things for what they truly are and not what they may seem to be. A philosopher’s life is a lifelong quest to find the meaning of things beyond their physical appearance. The Ring of Gyges is a ring that a man puts on and becomes invisible. When he does wrong he is not blamed, he gets away with it. Once a man puts this ring on he can be unjust without punishment. In the second book of The Republic Adimantus argued that the unjust life is happier than the unjust. His argument was that a just man can go without now and enjoy heaven in the afterlife while an unjust man will go without nothing and still enjoy the benefits of the after life. Through the eyes of a philosopher there are two worlds, the visible world and the intelligible world. In the visible you can see things and judge them from what you actually see. If a person sees a flower one could judge that it is a beautiful flower. However, the person is judging this flowers beauty on its physical appearance and their claim is merely an opinion rather than true knowledge. In “The Allegory of the Cave” men are chained inside of a cave. All they can see is the shadows that are formed on the wall in front of them. The people inside of the cave believe that the shadows that are being cast on the wall is reality. When one of the men is unchained and brought to the outside world at first he is blinded by the sun and cannot see clearly. The man can only see the shadows of the objects in front of him, this can be perceived as the images of physical objects. When his eyes adjust he can see more than the shadows, he can see the physical objects themselves. When the man goes back inside of the cave to tell the others what he has seen he again cannot see clearly because his eyes have not adjusted. The others in the cave
The word philosophy itself means “the love of wisdom.” Philosophy stands for doing the right thing or being a “just” person. Philosophy also means to see things for what they truly are and not what they may seem to be. A philosopher’s life is a lifelong quest to find the meaning of things beyond their physical appearance. The Ring of Gyges is a ring that a man puts on and becomes invisible. When he does wrong he is not blamed, he gets away with it. Once a man puts this ring on he can be unjust without punishment. In the second book of The Republic Adimantus argued that the unjust life is happier than the unjust. His argument was that a just man can go without now and enjoy heaven in the afterlife while an unjust man will go without nothing and still enjoy the benefits of the after life. Through the eyes of a philosopher there are two worlds, the visible world and the intelligible world. In the visible you can see things and judge them from what you actually see. If a person sees a flower one could judge that it is a beautiful flower. However, the person is judging this flowers beauty on its physical appearance and their claim is merely an opinion rather than true knowledge. In “The Allegory of the Cave” men are chained inside of a cave. All they can see is the shadows that are formed on the wall in front of them. The people inside of the cave believe that the shadows that are being cast on the wall is reality. When one of the men is unchained and brought to the outside world at first he is blinded by the sun and cannot see clearly. The man can only see the shadows of the objects in front of him, this can be perceived as the images of physical objects. When his eyes adjust he can see more than the shadows, he can see the physical objects themselves. When the man goes back inside of the cave to tell the others what he has seen he again cannot see clearly because his eyes have not adjusted. The others in the cave
Cited: Plato, and Benjamin Jowett. The Trial and Death of Socrates: Four Dialogues. New York: Dover Publications, 1992. Print. Plato, H. D. P. Lee, and M. S. Lane. The Republic. London: Penguin, 2007. Print.