Plato's Allegory of the Cave

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

An allegory used by the Greek philosopher Plato in his work The Republic to illustrate "our nature in its education and want of education" (514a).

Sample Sentences

• The Allegory may be related to Plato's Theory of Forms, according to which the "Forms" (or "Ideas"), and not the material world of change known to us through sensation, possess the highest and most fundamental kind of reality.
• In addition, the Allegory of the Cave is an attempt to explain the philosopher's place in society: to attempt to enlighten the "prisoners".

Usage
Allegory of the Cave
Plato


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Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a major work and is used in many books today as a reference to enlightenment. The first listed article explains the cave but in a short summary: there is a cave where prisoners are facing a wall and chained together. All they see is the wall and nothing more other than the shadows cast upon the wall by the people and the fire in the background (these people are the owners of the prisoners). Because of this all they know is the wall, so when one of the owners lets one prisoner out of the cave, he becomes enlightened with the outside world and sees first hand what it really is. However, when the prisoner is returned to the cave and attempts to tell his experience he is now considered an outcast and will more than likely be killed because of his difference. In the second article, there is a biography on Plato himself and a few key points: he lived from 427-347 BC and began his philosophical career as a student of Socrates.


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Orphic Sages

Orphic Sages

Those associated with Orphism or a religious and philosophical system of the Orphic School. Orphism is a mystery religion of ancient Greece with pre Hellenic beliefs.


Sample Sentences

• Orphism is one of the early versions of Christianity with an overlapping in Green and Roman mythology.
• Orphic sages believed that the soul can be reincarnated (and was) and that life is a big cycle.

Usage
Orphism
The Spiritual Foundations


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Orphism is associated with the mythical poet of Orpheus who descended into Hades and returned. In the first listed article the author states that Pythagoreanism and Orphism have parallels in their views, however it is uncertain as to which influenced the other. Both articles state the same criteria of Orphism in the sense that human souls are characterized as "divine" however, they are doomed to live in a cycle; by living an ascetic life with secret rites in order to release their souls and be in better communion with God; warning of postmortem punishment for transgressions during life; and being founded upon the sacred writings about the origins of gods and of human beings.


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Niccolò Machiavelli

Niccolò Machiavelli

Italian historian, diplomat, philosopher, humanist and writer in Florence during the Renaissance. Founder of modern political science and a civil servant of the Florentine republic.

Sample Sentences

• Machiavelli was born in a tumultuous era—popes waged acquisitive wars against Italian city-states, and people and cities might fall from power at any time.
• Machiavelli is sometimes seen as the prototype of a modern empirical scientist, building generalizations from experience and historical facts, and emphasizing the uselessness of theorizing with the imagination.

Usage
Words for the Wise
Machiavelli


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Machiavelli contributed many important theories and ideas most of which we use today. However, some call these theories and ideas a double edged sword where it may be beneficial to an individual, but it may also be devastating as well. I say this because in the second article titled Machiavelli the author indicates that many different groups including that of the feminists, Nazi and Soviets have taken Machiavelli's works and ideas and have created them in their own view. In the first listed article titled Words for the Wise, the author creates an allusion to Machiavelli while speaking about a governor's slip up. He states one of Machiavelli's famous quotes: "A prince ought to let nothing slip from his lips".


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Alfred Whitehead

Alfred Whitehead

Known for his metaphysics, he was also a mathematician. "Every real life object may be understood in a similarly constructed series of events and processes."


Sample Sentences

• He co-authored the epochal Principia Mathematica with Russell and later the metaphysical treatise Process and Reality.
• Whitehead supervised the doctoral dissertations of Bertrand Russell and Willard Van Orman Quine, thus influencing logic and virtually all of analytic philosophy.

Usage
 The Aims of Education
Alfred North Whitehead


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Alfred Whitehead, as you can tell, was a very intelligent individual. In the first listed article White head named one of his essays, The Aims of Education which he delivered as his presidential address to the Mathematical Association of England in 1916. Within his address he spoke about teaching in British schools but as he went on it evolved into teaching not only in England but also in America where he consequently stated that "the general principles apply equally to both countries". In the second article there is a mini biography of Mr. Whitehead including when he became a professor and some of his greatest works. In one of his works (which I found interesting because I'm a nerd like that) titled, The Principle of Relativity, he challenged Einstein's general theory of relativity.


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Friedrich Nietzsche

Friedrich Nietzsche

German philosopher, poet, composer, and cultural critic. He wrote texts on religion, morality, philosophy, contemporary culture and science with many metaphors, irony and aphorism. He believes in life-affirmation by questioning all doctrines that drain life's expansive energies (most influential on existentialism, post-modernism, and post-structuralism).


Sample Sentences

• Nietzsche began his career as a classical philologist before turning to philosophy.
• Nietzsche's key ideas include the "death of God", the Übermensch, the eternal recurrence, the Apollonian and Dionysian dichotomy, perspectivism, and the will to power.

Usage

Friedrich Nietzsche

American Nietzsche

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Nietzsche was a literary genius of his time. With his many aphorisms Nietzsche made who he was. One of his many aphorisms is the idea of "what can't kill you, makes you stronger". In almost every style of writing he wrote, as you'll read in the first listed article, Nietzsche was able to reach out to many different groups such as feminists, anti-feminists  etc. In these writings he compiled ideas a top of ideas all of which any one group could relate too. He denounced Christianity in the following quote: “God is dead”; “It is only as an aesthetic phenomenon that existence and the world are eternally justified”; “There are no facts, only interpretations.” As you can tell, Nietzsche was a very strong existentialist, he believed in himself and nothing else.

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Albert Camus

Albert Camus

French author, journalist, and philosopher. Contributed views to philosophy known as absurdism. He believed in existentialism but never accepted the label. Opposed nihilism but still delved deeply into individual freedom.


Sample Sentences

• Camus joined the French Communist Party in the spring of 1935, seeing it as a way to "fight inequalities between Europeans and 'natives' in Algeria."
• In 1940, Camus married Francine Faure, a pianist and mathematician.

Usage
Books of the Times
Camus' Last Work


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Camus was an author in the 1950's and until 1960. This was a time of totalitarianism but if you read in the first listed article the author will tell you that Camus had a clear perspective on the wrongs of the totalitarian governments and third world dictators.  He denounced the atrocities of Stalin and was a sort of outcast among his literary peers because of the fact of his political clearheadedness. The second article goes on to talk about Camus last work which was his autobiography. This work was found in a 144 page collection after Camus' death in a car wreck in 1960. His wife decided against the publication of the pages because of the bitter times with his once good friend Sartre; however, in later years Camus' daughter decided to publish the collection and it became a major hit.


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David Hume

David Hume

A Scottish philosopher, historian, and economist. Known for his philosophical empiricism and skepticism. Important figure in history of western philosophy and Scottish enlightenment. 


Sample Sentences

• Hume is often grouped with John Locke, George Berkeley, and a handful of others as a British Empiricist.
• Beginning with his A Treatise of Human Nature (1739), Hume strove to create a total naturalistic "science of man" that examined the psychological basis of human nature.

Usage
First Principles
David Hume's Tercentenary


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Hume was a great Scottish philosopher and a well respected man, even in his death. The first article deals with Hume's first principles of what he believed, some of which was on the border of nihilism. In the second article, the author is outraged in the fact that Hume recently had his 300th birthday and there was no talk of him anywhere within the Scottish or the world. The author gives this quote by Hume:  “When men are most sure and arrogant they are commonly most mistaken, giving views to passion without that proper deliberation which alone can secure them from the grossest absurdities.” He goes on to state that it is no wonder the media has taken out Hume's from the world.

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