Paper Example on Living in the Cave: Plato's Views on Comfort & Fear

1.Do you think that Plato is correct is arguing that most people want to live in the Cave with their shadows and echoes? If you can, name a time that you have clung to your shadows and echoes in order to protect yourself from the truth. What was the result? Would you exchange life in the Cave if you were happy for life outside of the Cave where you're taking your chances in regards to happiness? Explain your thoughts.

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Plato tried to address people's tendencies to hung on to previous experience, which they are familiar with while in their initial state. It acts as their comfort zone as a person chained in a cave knows about their shadow. Fearful people will be frightened by the sun after being released in the cave since it is not their usual comfort zone that they are familiar with while faced with challenges. And when these people want to hide the truth, they retreat to their initial status to seek the ordinary and the more comfortable experience.

He suggested that to be real about ourselves, it is essential not to seek a way back to our comfort zone in the cave with the imitation of ourselves which is the shadow and echoes. It is crucial to remain in the sun to be enlightened and develop our strength, which will help us become active and aware of ourselves.

2. Aristotle argues that it is the job of the statesman to provide an environment where doing the right thing does not get one harmed.

According to Aristotle, portrays a statesman as a right person with moral ideas that helps in creating an ethical and moral upright government for their people. However, a statesman is not susceptible to all forms of government that exist hence bring out the difference between a statesman and a citizen by roles. Based on a person presented by Aristotle's concept, it is therefore correct to state that it is a role of a statesman to provide the desired environment where doing the right thing does not get anyone hurt. Most of the forms of government that currently exist to accept people doing a correct thing based on moral ideas build by the society and the spiritual groups that exist. An excellent example of statesmanship can be; Jailing a rich person who has been stealing public money and financing their development projects. In this situation, police officers can arrest the rich person for fraud while the judge should sentence them to jail for justice to be served. And instead of police taking bribe and preventing people from triggering the arrest of the rich person or destroy all the pieces of evidence that might lock them up in jail.

The US government established the Anti-Drug Act of 1988, whose primary goal is to improve the American public health and safety by curtailing illicit drug consumption in the country, consequently reducing drug abuse. This drug policy of the United States encourages people to avoid using the drug by getting rid of them with the help of the communities and locals hence reducing harm amongst the citizen by doing the correct thing. The DEA needs to carry out its mandate of improving public health and safety by curtailing the circulation of illicit drugs.

3. Do you think that the natural law tradition is on to something, or do you dismiss it, or are you somewhere in between? Explain your answer using your own experiences in one to two paragraphs. (Aquinas's the natural law view)

Without question, natural law plays an essential role in nature with its existence beyond the human level of understanding. Nature has its way and reasons why something happens as it seeks to create balance to itself. The presence of this law helps in explaining some situations since they do not make sense when we employ our human understanding or rules to describe them. Also, the natural law shapes how we develop favorable rules which are compatible to do the two work to produce maximum effect universally. For us to understand our origin and the adaptability of individual behavior and living pattern, it is essential to acknowledge the existence and the essence of natural law. The law helps in analyzing human nature while deducing all the moral behavior binding rules from life or God's creation of human beings and reality.

According to natural law, every human being must die to fulfill the binding rules of nature. Scholars, scientists, and theologists do not have a clear understanding of dying. Similarly, death exists outside the positive law and its also know to be human nature to fulfill the rule that binds people to reality. Thomas Aquinas tried explaining the natural law in God's perspective as a creator of truth, which is acknowledged by human beings across the world. As the philosopher tried to attach God to Nature's law, he brought about the modern natural law theory by combining Roman law with social contract theory philosophies. As a result, people believe in a supreme being like God, the creator of humankind and the reality which natural law follows.

4. Do you consider yourself free? Reflect on what manner you are or are not free.

I consider myself not free because people have a different definition of being free, which ends up being an illusion of determinism. People think that fulfilling their appetites and getting what benefits them results in being free, which is not the case. For me, I do not know my true cause which determines us. Being free means that people are inclined towards something beneficial to them. According to the type of freedom people choose nowadays are impulse oriented to benefit their illusion. The act of free will is an illusion in which people observe other people's choices and do a test of remorse, which may end up becoming regret; hence, it becomes an illusion. Having an open mind is the first step of becoming free and not to think in possessive nature to satisfy our thoughts, which are influenced by memories acquired in various ways.

Actual freedom is an act of doing the correct thing that satisfies our illusions and determinism. Similarly, we should be inclined towards the truth, which rightfully shows us to the world. Perceiving something real with happiness and appetites as a person's goal to achieve this course is strong freedom. Carrying out any duty in this mode implies that their will be no regrets after achieving its objectives. And a person at this point is not influenced into doing something to fulfill their appetites, desires or fantasies. One should consider all these factors as it is imperative to know that people are not free and do not possess free will. Choosing to do anything wrong does not mean it's a person's choice since it is influenced by a negative force that is easily attached to people's appetites and desires; hence, the end product is regretted.

5. As this count for WFP 5 and 6, it is a bit more of an assignment than usual. I expect a roughly 3-5 paragraph response.

Although climate change is a global problem, its solutions lie with most of the private property owners as they have lands which can accommodate all the tree required to put climate change in control thus climate change is an individual property problem. This situation has granted people on private property a duty to solve the problem instead of waiting for the government to start acting late. According to the laws of liberalism, it gives certain people the rights to prohibit others from accessing anything non-public. Although these people have to save the earth, they may choose to carry out their own business. At this point, we see people violating their need to be free by doing the right thing. Liberalism moves away from being a people's affair to a personal one since a private property requires personal interaction to obtain anything from these individuals. Although people are needed to share resources, the rules set by the liberalism system has limited these resources to small people. In turn, everyone surfers due to a fault or selfishness of a person in the name of having private property.

This article demonstrates how people misuse power in the name of having illusional freedom. It is an excellent example of showing how people do not understand freedom by avoid doing the correct thing. In this article, Locke and Rousseau tried to show how the abled people in the society can exercise their freedom by doing the exact something and try to save the world from climate change. They clearly showed how our system limits our rights to use freedom by implementing selfish measures. Making more resources personal even though the first owners obtained it for free. Instead of people exercising their freedom like the first landowners, they began limiting their freedom.

6. How might a Kantian view the current events on campus (we have students drawing racist graffiti around campus)? Try to explain them through a Kantian lens. What might Kant think about the role of this in the evolution of human society?

The students who draw racist graffiti on campus are irrational and immoral, according to who the society views racism. It does not respect the unification of all race which is the goal of a human being thus it does not fulfill any point raised by the Kantian moral philosophy. Even though the graffiti drawer might think it is the right thing do to for these actions goes against the basic concepts of deontological ethical theory. According to the society, drawing or saying racial slurs are prohibited and are out of the question since it brings tension and upset among the targeted people on the campus. This act does more damage than good since it is unacceptable around the campus as stated in the university rules and it diminishes other communities rather than respecting people from the targeted population. Kantian moral philosophy says that the graffiti drawers are immoral as they violated the categorical imperative which is known to be the principle of morality in people's lives.

According to Immanuel Kant, a concept like deontological moral theory helps in the development of a community in a morally upright way; hence, the community will develop properly. Communities implementing Kantian moral philosophy will evolve faster dropping all the unwanted ethical behaviors like spitting racial slurs to diminish other cities as all the communities respect each other regardless of their ethnicity or origin and stereotypes. Also, society will develop peaceful while nurturing law-abiding citizens.

Works Cited

Peterson, Valerie V. "Plato's Allegory of the Cave: literacy and "the good." Review of Communication 17.4 (2017): 273-287.

Schonecker, Dieter, Immanuel Kant's Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals: A Commentary, Cambridge, Mass. (2015): Harvard University Press.

Paul Babie. PRIVATE PROPERTY: THE SOLUTION OR THE SOURCE OF THE PROBLEM? Amsterdam Law Forum. Vol 2, No 2 (2010)

Clark, Mary T. Augustine, Philosopher of Freedom: A Study in Comparative Philosophy. Pickle Partners Publishing, 2018.

d'Entreves, Alexander Passerin. Natural law: An introduction to legal philosophy. Routledge, 2017.