Week 1

It is difficult to disagree with Socrates that, without philosophical education, we are all merely prisoners in the cave. Education is essential in the sense that without it we settle for what is easy and what feels comfortable. Without education we are unable to challenge one another nor are we able to most importantly question things around us. Hinting to what Plato wanted us to understand, becoming educated means learning to live outside the world of shadows. We without philosophical education will be unable to break from societies chains and incapacitated to question their assumptions. Philosophy emancipates us in a sense that we are able to interrogate certainty. Philosophy allows us to look at things from a different perspective and encourages us to combat our beliefs and ideas. Socrates is right for feeling gloomy without philosophy because it coincides with freedom. Once a society is able to educate themselves and question the norms and combat socially constructed ideas then we can be considered liberated.