Archives for October 2025

1. What was the disagreement Socrates had with the Sophists?

2. What was Plato’s point in his allegory of the cave?

The Allegory of the Cave is a theory that if a group of people were chained from birth facing a cave wall, and the only thing they ever saw of the outside world were shadows projected onto it, they would believe that those shadows were the entire reality.
Plato’s point in the Allegory of the Cave was that most people believe only what they see. If someone has seen nothing but shadows their entire life, they will believe that shadows are all that exist.

The disagreement Socrates had with the Sophists was that the Sophists believed truth is relative and that persuasion is most important, while Socrates believed truth is absolute, can be discovered through reason, and that knowledge should aim toward improvement and wisdom.

In my view, the Cyclopes cannot be considered a true civilization. Each Cyclops lives in isolation rather than as part of a community, and they lack the basic structures that define organized societies, such as laws, shared governance, and agriculture

Odysseus and his men discover an island and decide to explore. They find a cave that appears to be inhabited and wait for its owner, who turns out to be a Cyclops. When the Cyclops finds Odysseus and his men, he rolls a massive stone across the entrance to trap them inside and proceeds to eat two of the men. That night he goes to sleep, and the next morning he eats two more men before letting his sheep out to graze, rolling the stone back in place behind him. Odysseus devises a plan to escape: when the giant returns, he introduces himself as “Nobody” and offers the Cyclops wine. The giant drinks the wine, becomes drunk, and falls asleep. Odysseus then sharpens a stick, hardens it in the fire, and plunges it into the Cyclops’ eye. The blinded giant cries out, “Help! Nobody is attacking me!” so the other Cyclopes ignore him. In the morning, as the Cyclops lets his sheep out, Odysseus and his men hide underneath them and escape. Once they reach their ship, Odysseus, overcome with pride, reveals his true name, prompting the Cyclops to call upon Poseidon to curse him and his men.