Thinking Inside the Blue Box

Create a post for your blog entitled "Thinking Outside the Box" in which you compare how Plato and Sartre describe the limitations of our thinking and imply solutions to the problem.  Be sure to analyze their literary techniques, especially their use of allegory and extended metaphor.

To contrast the two, Plato's view was more all about you. The one individual who broke the chain and walked out of the bane where knowledge was slain. That slave saw a world full of wonder but a-frighted with what he saw decided to blunder on.... anyway. True, that at first it was all a big blur, but by taking the first step he "plundered the stronghold of Troy," as it were. Now in Sartre's hell hole, these people are victims of population control. They were taken by death and sent to a room. A room with a gloom, no doubt to entomb the very essence of their own humanity. In this story we focus on the all, none of them knowing just what will befall should they a step out the door into the residence hall. My rhymings are vexing and pesky, I think you'll agree, but that's what you'd get to spend eternity with me. I think Sartre's stpry was more of an extended metaphor because how much deeper can you go if you're already in Hell. I think the Plato's on the other hand is definitely an allegory.

Think about the place you have chosen as your hell. Does it look ordinary and bourgeois, like Sartre's drawing room, or is it equipped with literal instruments of torture like Dante's Inferno? Can the mind be in hell in a beautiful place? Is there a way to find peace in a hellish physical environment? Enter Sartre's space more fully and imagine how it would feel to live there endlessly, night and day.

Wow, this question took me a while to come up with an answer. My hell would be sitting in a room with someone like Mr. Skinpole and then also having to deal with a peacekeeper.

 Could hell be described as too much of anything without a break? Are variety, moderation and balance instruments we use to keep us from boiling in any inferno of excess,' whether it be cheesecake or ravenous sex?

I don't think that an excess amount of something is hell. It's just annoying. But then again, if I was stuck for all eternity listening to that scratched up parrot sounding sound that's only 1 second long for the rest of my days... I'd want to shoot myself in the head. It's creepy and it's the only sound I have ever heard that makes me not want to go to sleep at night.

How does Sartre create a sense of place through dialogue? Can you imagine what it feels like to stay awake all the time with the lights on with no hope of leaving a specific place? How does GARCIN react to this hell? How could you twist your daily activities around so that everyday habits become hell? Is there a pattern of circumstances that reinforces the experience of hell?

When Inez says, "All sorts of little things got on my nerves. For instance, he made a noise when he was drinking-- a sort of gurgle. Trifles like that. He was rather pathetic really," I thought immediately of Screwtape Letters. One of the ways Screwtape suggested his nephew Wormwood get under the skin of everyone in his assigned household was make them loath the tiny tiny things that the other person always does. This tense atmosphere that builds and builds in hatred and loathing for a person you've been hanging around too much. Garcin tells the girls not to talk to one another. Just sit in a corner and think on the past and try to work something out for yourself.

Sonnet on the Allegory of the Cave

1. Do you hear those noises up above?
2. They're nothing! Pay no mind!
3. Watch me close and you will see that everything is fine.
4. There is nothing in this world worth knowing.
5. I am the truth and
6. There is no proof to say that I AM LYING.
7. Never wander, never worry,
8. Feel free to sit and tarry.
9. Those chains are there for a reason.
10. They will help you see what's real,
11. For surely you know that you are mine
12. And I can make you kneel.
13. Never ponder what lies beyond my rocks,
14. When you can stay here, with me, inside my hollow box.

This sonnet was written from the perspective of the shadows 

that the cave prisoners thought were real.

Lines of Lineage

Summary of Richard II and Henry IV in preporation for Henry V.

Gettin' reeaaallllllll close to 1000 page views.

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?
Socrates relates the Allegory of the Cave to our own perceptions of the world. We have grown up for so long looking at one thing and believing it to be the truth, but in reality it may not be true. Everything we see and how we see it has been dictated to us from birth.
2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?
The fire is like... the dictatorship that has loomed over us all our lives. The shadows are what we see, but they aren't the real thing. The shadows are our psuedo-reality.
3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?
Sometimes I think that we'd be better off getting rid of the learning system we have today and that doesn't entail NEVER learning anything again. But whenever I-- well, this is just the way I see it but whenever I think of how tedious and mind numbing school is I see the image of Mr. Hutton looming over the school and I see Mr. Molina smiling vaguely at everyone's boredom. If we want to get out of this egregious funk of learning the bare minimum to pass these standardized tests then we need to get rid of the people who make us learn in a prison. Seriously, they just built the fence about 3 feet taller this week... 
When we listened to The Cave by Mumford & Sons whilst doing our journals today there was a set of lyrics that said, "Come out of your cave walking on your hands and see the world hanging upside down." Actually, now that I'm looking at the lyrics to the song, I think Marcus actually based that song off of this allegory!
4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?
The cave prisoners' perspective is very narrow and confined.
5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?
The bloody tabloids for a start.
6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?
The freed prisoner is actually seeing the reality of the world, whilst the cave prisoners only understand the shadows.
7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?
The first is by birth and being born into a world where we can't think for ourselves. The second is when we let our perception of what something is get in the way. It becomes even worse when our way of seeing something becomes the reality.
8. According to the allegory, how do cave prisoners get free? What does this suggest about intellectual freedom?
The prisoner is dragged out meaning that he could be being forced outside or he is too weak to go on his own. If the first is true then it will be difficult to progress, but if the second is true then we need to help other people find intellectual freedom.
9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?
Yes, just look at people. In high school you see many masks, hardly ever faces. In the adult world it's the same thing. Anyone can fake being happy and content, but in reality they hardly ever are. 
that's the trouble with disguises, no matter how hard you try they are always a reflection of the real person.
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 don't think he is incorrect, but the other two alternative metaphysical assumptions could possibly be that the appearance is the reality , nothing more or.......... erm that........ THERE IS NO REALITY!!! I'M JUST DREAMING YOU ALL UP!!! Thanks Beka :). Laterz.

Smile

Quote by Mother Teresa
Picture from The Silence Beneath the Bark

Big Question

What if our society valued Words more than it did Numbers?

Sonnet

I've been thinking about what sonnet I would like to study and I have finally decided to take a gander at Shakespeare's Sonnet #116. It's really quite lovely :)

Bacov

Affinity- relationship by marriage
Bilious- of or indicative of a peevish ill nature disposition
Cognate- of the same nature
Corollary- A proposition inferred Immediately from a proved proposition with little or no additional proof
Cul-de-sac - a pouch
Derring-do- a daring action
Divination- The art or practice that seeks to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge due to the interpretation of omens
Elixir- A substance capable of prolonging life indefinitely
Folderol- a useless accessory
Gamut- an entire range or series
Hoi polloi- the General populace
Ineffable- incapable of being expressed in words
Lucubration- to study by night
Mnemonic- intended to assist memory
Obloquy- abusive language
Parameter- an independent variable used to express the coordinates of variable point and functions of them
Pundit- a learned man
Risible- provoking laughter
Symptomatic- having the characteristics of a certain disease but arising of a different cause
Volte-face- a reversal in policy

Realizations Before Bedtime

Oh hey, it's November... I feel like eating cabbage.

Bacov

aficionado - noun a serious devotee of some particular music genre or musical performer; a fan of bull fighting
browbeat - verb discourage or frighten with threats or a domineering manner; intimidate; be bossy towards
commensurate - adj. corresponding in size or degree or extent
diaphanous - adj. so thin as to transmit light
emolument - noun compensation received by virtue of holding an office or having employment (usually in the form of wages or fees)
foray - noun an initial attempt (especially outside your usual areas of competence); a sudden short attack; verb briefly enter enemy territory; steal goods; take as spoils
genre - noun a class of art (or artistic endeavor) having a characteristic form or technique; a kind of literary or artistic work; an expressive style of music; a style of expressing yourself in writing
homily - noun a sermon on a moral or religious topic
immure - verb lock up or confine, in or as in a jail
insouciant - adj. marked by blithe unconcern
matrix - noun mold used in the production of phonograph records, type, or other relief surface;the formative tissue at the base of a nail; the body substance in which tissue cells are embedded;a rectangular array of elements (or entries) set out by rows and columns; an enclosure within which something originates or develops (from the Latin for womb)
obsequies - noun a funeral rite or ceremony
panache - noun a feathered plume on a helmet; distinctive and stylish elegance
persona - noun (Jungian psychology) a personal facade that one presents to the world; an actor's portrayal of someone in a play
philippic - noun a speech of violent denunciation
prurient - adj. characterized by lust
sacrosanct - adj. must be kept sacred
systemic - adj. affecting an entire system
tendentious - adj. having or marked by a strong tendency especially a controversial one
vicissitude - noun mutability in life or nature (especially successive alternation from one condition to another); a variation in circumstances or fortune at different times in your life or in the development of something