Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent? 
The Allegory of the cave represents a prison. It also represents torture. This is because the three prisoners are being chained there like animals and just watching there own shadows.
 
2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The key elements in the imagery used in the allegory are the fire in the back as well as the shadows and chains.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education? Some things about education is that it won't work. For example it says that Professors of education are wrong about putting knowledge into a soul that's not their. It's like trying to give sight into a blind eye.
 
4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners? The imagery of shackles is that shackles are used in prisons and they are used to keep the men looking forward. The cave is also like a prison because it is were the men stayed shackled to. 
 
5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind? Not having a job or not having enough money shackles all of us I would believe because those two things are a huge deal and can cause a lot of stress on most of us.
 
6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The cave prisoners and the freed prisoners have both similarities and differences. They are similar because they were both prisoners at one time or another and they are different because one has seen the light and the outside world while the cave prisoners have only known shadows and sounds.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
One way confusion can be scene is that when one of the prisoners sees the sun for the first time he goes back to tell his friends and they do not understand what is going on. They just see what they have always seen and leave their friend confused as to why they don't understand him. Another is that you will not be able to accept the truth for what it really is.
 
8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The Cave Prisoners become free by wanting to know what is going on in the outside world.
 
9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Yes, I agree with this because in the cave they were chained and could only imagine about the new world and when they finally got to reality it was like something they have never seen before and were in aw. 
 
10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?
I do not think that Socrates is wrong because there is a distinction between reality ad appearances.