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Click on pictures for an enlargement |
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Caveman Cartoon: Visual Difficulties
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Plato's Text |
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Saddam Hussein in the Cave ---------------------
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Cave Picture (cutaway view) -------------------------
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©John Sparks,
PHI 110, 1998 |
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Cave Picture (cutaway view) ---------------------
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©Melissa Fitch,
PHI 110, 2000 |
Republic Book 7, 514a+ (paraphrased and condensed):
Imagine people living in a underground cave that has a distant entrance open to the outside . . . they've been here since childhood, their necks and legs chained so that they can only see in front of them . . . above and behind them a fire is burning, and between them and the fire is a low wall like a screen over which puppeteers display their puppets . . . and imagine people behind the wall carrying artifacts, figures of people, animals, and so on. Some of these people are talking, others are not . . . the prisoners see only the shadows of artifacts cast on the cave wall by the fire . . . there are echoes so that when the carriers speak the sound seems to come from the shadows on the wall . . . there is a steep and difficult ascent to the outside world where the sun, moon, and stars are clearly visible . . .
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for the complete text.