Like I said in class, Plato's Allegory of the Cave is a difficult reading, but I think it can be rewarding, too. The hardest thing to get past is its absence of quotation marks and identification of characters: it's hard to tell who's talking, and when a different character is talking. Let me try to help with that.
The first "I" in the dialogue (p. 284 of your handout) is spoken by Socrates, Plato's teacher, who is leading a conversation with his students. The response "I see" is given by a student, a man named Glaucon. Each "I said" comes from Socrates; each "he said" refers to Glaucon. Here is a link to a web site that uses the same translation and has Glaucon's responses in bold, which makes it easier to follow. This site, however, stops about halfway through our reading.
Later in their conversation, Socrates refers to "the State." By this, he means the government, and the conversation he has with Glaucon is part of a larger attempt to figure out the ideal form of government, the ideal state. So here's the topic for your journal response: Why does Socrates tell the allegory of the cave? What is the larger point he is trying to make by telling this story to Glaucon? Could he have made his point more effectively without telling the allegory? Remember, since I have your journals, write or type your response on a separate sheet of paper, and then tape it into your journal after I return it to you.
Enjoy the weekend!
