Allegory of the Cave/ Theory of Forms

Here is a visual of The Allegory of the Cave.



Here is a diagram of The Theory of Forms.

How does imagination lend meaning to our lives and experiences?

In one of the Twilight Zone episodes, "Walking Distance," the main character, Martin Sloan goes back to the town he grew up in to recollect all of his childhood memories. But when he goes there, all of the people that were there when he was little, are still there. In the park, he sees himself as a little kid and on the Ferris wheel. He also sees his parents but they don't know who he is because hes an adult. Going back to his hometown, Martin sees how much of his childhood he wasted and if he could do it all over again, he would. If he lived his childhood differently, his adulthood would be different. That's how his imagination led to the meanings of our lives.

In the story, "The Tell-Tale Heart" the "unreliable" narrator, kills an elderly man because the man supposedly had an "EVIL EYE". After he killed him, he was paranoid that he could hear the old man's heart beating. His imagination led him to turn himself in to the police. His act of selfish killing led him to regret his wrong doing. His conscious ate up his inside. That's how his imagination led to the meanings of our lives.

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World Summary

This was definitely the weirdest story I've ever read.

This odd story was about a dead man who washed up on shore of a beach, in a small village. But this wasn't an ordinary man, he was a BIG man. So big he barely fit through the door of the house and he couldn't properly fit on the table neither, "...almost as much as a horse."
The village only had 20 houses and there were only 7 men, so they knew that this man was a stranger. The village woman decided to have a funeral for him because it would be the right thing to do. So they cleaned all of the seaweed and scales off of him. But none of their clothes could fit him, so they had to sew clothes from a boat sail. As they cleaned him up, they noticed that he was extremely handsome. And he was "...the tallest, strongest, most vile, and best built man they had ever seen..." They started comparing their husbands to "Esteban" (that's what they named him) and said men are "...the weakest, meanest, and most useless creatures on earth."
The woman then started to think what life he lived before he died. They thought it must have been difficult for him to go through doors or sit in normal chairs because he was so big, how could he fit.
When the woman finished dressing him for his funeral, one of them put a handkerchief on his face for respect. When one of them took it off, even the men agreed that he was handsome. The women's friends came, with flowers after flowers. And finally they tossed him overboard back into the water.
"Esteban" definitely didn't do say anything to have an effect on the village people. But he opened their eyes to things they didn't see before he arrived. They re-did all of the houses and made them big, in honor of "Esteban's" size. They widened the doorway, they made their floors steadier, paint the houses bright happy colors and make the ceiling higher. They considered the village, "Esteban's" .

Research Papers = Not cool !

I’ve learned that research is very complex and if you don't do it right, it could mess up your entire paper. You can't just get research from any place, especially online. There are some websites that don't state facts that can be proven, their just people's opinion on a topic. Some sites that end in EDU or GOV are the most reliable. EDU stands for education and GOV stands for government. Www.About.com and www.ask.com aren’t the world’s best reliable sources for a research paper because the information is based on people’s points of view.

Writing a research paper was definitely a learning experience for me, considering I wrote my first one for Psychology. I knew nothing about it and I didn’t know at exactly what angle to start from. High School never prepared me for research papers. I actually had to Google how to write a research paper because I had no clue. After looking at about 5 examples and formats, I started to get the hang of how to start it and how to expand a 4 word question into a 4 page research paper.

If writing a research paper is difficult, don’t wait till the last minute to do it. The time frame and not knowing what to write will stress you out and cause you to break down and most likely give up. Start ahead of time, so you have time to review it and to edit if you see you could add more or take out some.

Rough Draft : Platonic & The Matrix

Thesis: Plato’s Allegory of the Cave and Theory of Forms relate in many ways to the psychology of the Matrix.

    The 1999 science-fiction film, The Matrix, is about a computer hacker named 

Neo who is brought into “reality” from a dream world; this “reality” is known as 

The Matrix. “The Matrix is everywhere, it's all around us, here even in this 

room...It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the 

truth,” states Morpheus. The dream world was created by machines so they 

could control the human population. But in the dream world humans were free 

to do and be whoever they wanted.  

Plato and Socrates wrote a fictional dialogue called Allegory of the Cave,

which was designed to teach, as Plato said, "our nature in its education and want

of education.” The Allegory of the Cave (also known as, Analogy of the Cave/

Parable of the Cave/ Plato’s Cave) describes a group of imprisoned individuals

who live their whole lives in a cave, facing a wall. Their hands and legs are

chained together and their head is adjusted to only stare at the wall. And all they

know of the world and reality are the sounds they hear and shadows they see

cast upon the walls of the cave. Plato and Socrates imagined one of the prisoners

was to be released; how would he act in the real world? If the released prisoner

was shown the objects they have seen upon the wall of the cave, they would not

recognize it because the shadow is what’s real to the prisoner, not the actual

object. The prisoner believes that the cave is reality and reality is a dream world.

“…is graceless and looks quite ridiculous when – with his sight still dim and

before he has gotten sufficiently accustomed to the surrounding darkness” states

Socrates. But the prisoner would recognize the Sun and know what it is and that

it gives everything life and energy.

The Allegory of the Cave and The Matrix relate because Morpheus

emphasized to Neo that the reality he thought he lived in, wasn’t real and the r

released prisoner from the cave was convinced that the outside world wasn’t

reality. Neo subliminally lived in a cave, shielded from the real world, or the

Matrix. And all he saw was what was in front of him. When Neo was released

into the Matrix, he didn’t believe he was in reality because everything is

computer operated and he isn’t used to that.

Allegory of the Cave also has to do with the Theory of Forms, in the sense

that the forms have to do with the world of revolution being presented to us

through sensation, takes the highest and most basic kind of reality.

TO BE CONTINUED…

Possible Topics for The Matrix Paper

1. What is real? - vague

2. Comparing and contrasting Alice in Wonderland to the Matrix
Alice ==> Neo

3. Trinity is the real hero
If she wasn't a character, some events wouldn't have accord


4. Lukan's theory ==> the Matrix


5. Neo's birth into the "real world"


6. Plato's theory ==>the Matrix


7. Red pill and blue pill


8. Comparing & contrasting Neo and Trinity
there is no Neo w|o Trinity


9. Solopsism ==> the Matrix


10. Trinity plays masculine role


11. virtual reality & physical reality


12. Compare Neo to Jesus/ Oracle to God


13.Compare the evil deceiver to the matrix

The Erotic Life of Machines

This article was about how the author, Steven Shaviro sees humans and how he thinks that we're all computers inside. He states that we are made out of information rather than bodies and physicality. Our minds are software that can run on different kinds of hardware.

He then talks about the Matrix and says that in the movie all of the physical reality as they knew it turned out to be a virtual simulation ran by evil machines in order to confuse and exploit them. He also states that in the film it shows that virtual reality is a prison but yet you can do what you want and be who you want. While he was talking about the Matrix, Shaviro kept using terms that involved him in it; like "us" or "our" or "we".

Then he states how author, Katherine Hayles thinks that we are all posthuman. Posthuman is a "before" human.

The music video "All is Full of Love" by Bjork is about robots. And he states how Bjork's voice is dehumanized. And he goes into detail about the lighting and how Bjork's skin is pale white and talks about the producer of this movie and talks a little about his background. All unnecessary things.

Shaviro also states that Marshall McLuhan thinks that each change in the media, changes the ratio to our senses.

Shaviro states that the World Wide Web is digitally divided. And that if someone doesn't state their race online, that you are presumed to be white. Due to our unconscious assumptions.

Then Shaviro talks about psychoanalysis. And says that humans need to understand the body and the mind in other terms, according to the play of other structures and other forces.

Shaviro lastly states that "our" bodies probably will become mechanized.


Here is a youtube link of " All is Full of Love" by Bjork:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjAoBKagWQA

Rene Descarte and the evil demon

The omnipotent evil demon is sometimes called the evil genius. Descarte believes that there is another world, outside of earth, with other people, an illusion the demon presents. The evil demon who is "as clever and deceitful as he is powerful, who has directed his entire effort to misleading me." The evil demon also presents an illusion of his own body and all bodily senses [ Descartes has no body?]. And has the ability to change the fundamentals of logic and mathematics.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evil_demon

Dorian Grey rough draft

There is a fine line between imagination and reality. In Oscar Wilde’s, The Picture of

Dorian Grey, imagination is subliminally just as much as a main character than Dorian,

Basil and Lord Henry. But is this make-believe or an actual supernatural event that

occurs? Perhaps, if one was a character in this book, one would witness its truthfulness

or its phoniness. Dorian Grey’s paranoia wasn’t necessary because his eyes weren’t the

only one’s who saw his “alter-ego” in the painting.

Dorian Grey “with the air of a young Greek martyr” (Wilde, 13) is the protagonist

of, The Picture of Dorian Grey. He is a narcissist, who not only portrays self-obsession

but youth as well. “…he was certainly wonderfully handsome, with his finely-curved

scarlet lips, his frank blue eyes, his crisp gold hair.” (12). His beauty not only has an

affect on himself, but Basil as well. Basil feels as if Dorian is, “…a motive in art” (10).

He not only has love for him as a friend, but there is an infatuation throbbing deep inside

for Dorian, “Of course I flatter him dreadfully,” (10). But Dorian’s heart wasn’t in

Basil’s friendship once Lord Henry came about. “He was so unlike Hallward…and he has

such a beautiful voice.” (10). Nevertheless there is some evil in Dorian’s soul that

didn’t appear until the climax, “‘Each of us has Heaven and Hell in him…’” (83). Too

bad there wasn’t a heads-up.

The painting Basil created is to blame. Dorian’s wish, “‘If the picture could

change, and I could be always what I am now!’” (19); was merely a selfish and jealous

wish. Dorian does not want to accept the fact that one day his youth and beauty will not be the topic of discussion. It is true, to be careful what you wish for.

Dorian’s love, Sybil Vane. Another victim to the blindness love has upon the youth. “‘It seemed to me that all my life had been narrowed to one perfect point of rose-colored joy.’” (34).The words Dorian selects for the break up are cruel, obnoxious and shallow just because she isn’t who he wants her to be. “‘You have killed my love.’” (40). Dorian is in love with the roles she portrays in plays, not her as Sybil Vane. “‘…you have spoiled the romance of my life.’” (40). The day Dorian discovers the news of Sybil’s suicide, “He was dazed with horror.” (46). His inner guilt came on to the surface, “‘So I have killed Sybil Vane…’” (47). He might as well have literally killed her because he killed her emotionally.