What would you say if someone told you that your dreams and goals are merely phantoms in your own mind? A video analysis of Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" from The Republic takes high schoolers through the famous metaphor, which likens the enlightened to those emerged from a dark cave, and the unenlightened to those who refuse to believe that anything exists outside of the cave.

Concepts

plato, greek philosophers, philosophers, ancient greece, allegories

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Additional Tags

social studies

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Instructional Ideas

• Have learners draw their own caves, complete with the phantoms of intractable beliefs on the cave walls
• Include in a discussion about cognitive dissonance

Classroom Considerations

• Comment section is open to the public and contains both thoughtful and argumentative remarks

• This video is hosted on YouTube

Pros

• A valuable topic of discussion for political science or psychology as well as philosophy

Cons

• The illustration of the allegory contains an image of a naked man, which may be distracting or inappropriate for your class; consider skipping this part or only playing the audio of the video until the 2:48 mark

Common Core

SL.9-10.2 SL.11-12.2 RH.9-10.2 RH.11-12.2