The Allegory of the Cave

In approximately 380 BC, Greek philosopher Plato wrote The Republic, a Socratic dialogue concerning justice and the role of man. The book contains Plato's theory of "forms," an idea based on the belief that "forms" or "ideas" possess a higher reality than the realm of physical sensation.

The "Allegory of the Cave" consists of a conversation between Plato's student, Socrates, and Plato's brother, Glaucon. In the conversation, Socrates describes a cave in which men are imprisoned and fooled by a false reality. Socrates uses the allegory to define the role of the philosopher in society. To Socrates and Plato, philosophers can perceive the true nature of reality.

The false reality in the cave consists of "shadows."

The "shadows" are manipulated by men in power.

Men are kept like prisoners in the "dark," a state of false reality and deception. True reality exists above the cave, a land illuminated by the "sun," which represents the light of truth and higher reality.

To free one's self from the "cave," one must rely upon one's intuition and spiritiuality and free one's self from a reliance on the senses, as physical reality can be manipulated and used to enslave one in state of perpetual ignorance.

Your Task: Imagine that Thoreau attempted to create his own version of the cave allegory to reflect the society and times in which he lived (mid-19th century America). Describe the cave of deception that Thoreau would imagine and post your explanation as a comment on this post. 

• Due by midnight, Wed. 10/30. 

Arthur Miller: Were You Now or Were You Ever...

Pictured is Arthur Miller. The beautiful girl on his arm: Marilyn Monroe. This is the man who wrote The Crucible, and the very same man who refused to give up his friends while under investigation by the HUAC in the 1950's. However, Arthur Miller also "edited" his son, Daniel Miller, out of his life. Read the following article from The New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/08/30/arts/30iht-miller.1.7317269.html?_r=0

Respond to the following questions in a thoughtful response to this post by midnight, Friday 10/18.

• Having read The Crucible and his essay from 2000 describing his experiences during the 1950's, who was Arthur Miller, i.e. what kind of man was he?
• Does the article from The New York Times change your perception in any way? Explain.

2 Things

1

This Friday, October 11th, you will be taking the Unit 4 vocabulary quiz. Also anticipate a section on the quiz dedicated to prepositions. Specifically this: you will have to list 50 prepositions! Get to memorizing.
 Here is some help.

2

Our time with The Crucible is nearing an end, and we will soon begin discussing its other implications: mainly its role as a political allegory reflecting the turmoil of the 1950's. I'd like you all to create your own blogs. They will be used for publishing and collecting the writing and research you will complete for the remainder of this school year. 

To get started, visit blogger.com, and use the existing Google accounts you created to comment on this blog. 

If you are stumped, the site also contains a helpful tutorial that covers all of the basics of posting.

Due Date/Requirements

• You are responsible for creating a blog. Please give it a school appropriate title.
• Compose an initial post and publish it to your blog. 
• The post must contain at least one link, one embedded video, and one embedded image. 
• Post a link to your blog in the comment section of this post by Friday, October 18.

Less Versus Fewer

Howdy, all. Time for a quick grammar review. 

Let us quickly review the difference between "less" and "fewer."

Simply put, less is used with mass nouns, and fewer is used with count nouns.

The cute, Scottish Fold is baffled. 

 

A count noun refers to something that can be definitively counted; mass nouns are things that cannot be counted individually.

For example let us consider two of my absolute favorite things: guitars and coffee.

&

Guitars, which are distinct, solid objects of wooden wonderfulness, can be counted; coffee, the delicious, caffeinated beverage, is something that cannot be counted individually;

• "I need to own fewer guitars," is a grammatically correct statement; "I need to own less guitars," is grammatically incorrect.

• "I really need to drink less coffee," is a grammatically correct statement; "I really need to drink fewer coffee," is grammatically incorrect.

Your task: Write a two sample sentences in which you properly use less and another in which you properly use fewer. Please compose your sentences in the comment section of this post. 

Your responses are due by midnight, Sunday October 6th.