answer these questions

PHI 173: Justice and Society Lehman College Online Week 2 – Part 1 This week you will be introduced to philosophy through a text that can leave an impression of three different areas of philosophy (if not more): political philosophy, epistemology, and aesthetics.

Political Philosophy: the branch of philosophy concerned with questions and topics of politics and government, and topics that stem from these broad categories. Epistemology: the branch of philosophy concerned with questions of knowledge and knowing. Aesthetics: the branch of philosophy concerned with questions about art, artistic representation, beauty, etc.

Plato’s “Allegory of the Cave” is one of the best known texts in the history of philosophy. It’s found in his larger work, Republic. In this allegory, he illustrates the journey of someone who knew very little of reality into the real world. Please read the passage with these questions in mind:

1. What is the social/political message in this text? If you can, try to understand the political system that Plato is being critical of (ie. democracy, oligarchy, etc.).

2. What is the epistemic message in this text?

3. What is the aesthetic message in this text?

These three questions are hard to answer, so try your best! Your discussion board assignment is to answer these three questions as well as a fourth:

What is the relationship between Plato and Socrates and how does this appear in Plato’s texts?

You will have to do your own research to answer this fourth question. On Friday, a second document for the week will be posted with all of these questions answered. However, you must complete your discussion board assignment before the answers are posted in order to get your points for the week.