During the first section of this course, one of the biggest ideas we focused on was Socrates� quote saying, "an unexamined life is not worth living." The idea that if you are not willing to examine your life and work to find the truth, life is truly not going to be worth anything. TO find the truth, discover new things, and understand the perspectives of others is the only way to understand what you have done wrong, and what you can do to make your life and that of others one worth living.

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Other important ideas to remember from this week include Plato�s allegory of the cave, the five foundational lessons, and the story of Icarus and Daedelus. Plato�s allegory of the cave talks about a person who has left the cave of ignorance and illusion for the light of knowledge and truth. They then want to help those still trapped in ignorance and truth, but when they journey to help them, find themselves rejected and eventually killed by those who wish to remain in the cave of ignorance.

The five foundational lessons are true with almost everyone. They tell us that we are making decisions and these decisions affect ourselves and others. And our decisions are also affected by our own biases.

The story of Icarus and Daedelus teaches that if we are not aware, are not paying attention to what we do and think, we could pay the ultimate prrice. Icarus flew too high simply because he was having too much fun to pay attention to his height and paid the price by falling into the sea and drowning. He got so caught up in the joy and excitement of flying that he didn�t think of what could happen.. This can be applied to almost any aspect of our lives, including the simple ones like eating, driving, or what we say to others.

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This picture really helps me understand Plato�s allegory of the cave because it was difficult to for me to understand the way the cave works from just words/.

A question as a result of this section is; can being in the cave ever be good? My answer is based on Aristotle�s metaphor for the two kinds of people in the world. He compares people to a ship with and rudder and one without. Those with a rudder have direction in their life and have a means of getting to where they want to be. Those without a rudder are just drifting and going where life takes them and cannot fully experience they beauty of life. In order to have direction in life, one must understand everything around you, much as sailors had to understand the seas and winds. That means you must get out of the cave in order to go anywhere. Being the cave is never good.

courtesy of richard.m.pope.free.fr