Answer 2 of the following questions in a 350-word paragraph each.

1- Explain Plato’s Allegory of the Cave?

Plato, one of history’s greatest thinkers described life in his “allegory of the cave” which depicts
a group of prisoners that are confined in a cave since their birth and haven’t seen the outside
world yet. They are chained up and facing a wall unable to turn their heads, there is a fire behind
them, and people pass by occasionally carrying objects or animals which makes their shadow
reflect on the wall. The prisoners then name these figures believing that they are real for
example: if a woman carrying a cat were to pass behind them, they would name this creature
“pet” or “cat”. A prisoner is then freed and then was able to see the outside world, he then finds
out that the those figures around him aren’t mere illusions and that the shadows he was used to
seeing are reflections because of the sun he was confused. He then concludes that the sun is the
source of everything he has seen in the outside world. This allegory mainly sheds light on the
difference between knowledge and belief. It is just the same as being in a cinema, you watch a
movie, yet you know that what is happening is false and not real however when you go out into
the real world you learn from what you saw in the cinema and apply it to the real world

This allegory is connected to the theory of forms, Plato didn’t call the objects “ideal” however he
called them forms which represent perfection. The forms are abstract and unchanging and
according to Plato an example of the form could be beauty, justice, or truth…, from the theory of
forms we can make the distinction between knowledge and opinion, knowledge being the ability
to recognize one of the forms, and opinion the ability to know what the forms are.

4- Does evil come from the body according to Augustine?

Augustine was a Christian philosopher who before him turning Christian adhered to Manicheism
which is a religion that was based on a conflict between two principles which are: God and the
prince of darkness. These two principles pave the way for good and evil together, evil is any
form of matter with respect to Manicheism for example: the soul that is inside our body is good
and the body that surrounds it is evil. So, in some way Augustine is clearly showing that the soul
should be freed from the body to be good, and the soul can be freed with ascetic morality which
means to abstain from any bodily urges. Augustine faced a problem in his life which was
stopping him from being a Christian, this problem was his lust and bodily needs until he had a
revelation which was to him sent by God from a little girl singing a lullaby: “grab it and read”.
Then he decided to become a Christian and opposed Manicheism in which he believed that evil
is within the soul itself and not matter (the body), however if a soul was truly evil then this
would mean that this soul has become too attached to the matter which is the body. So, through
his difficulties in lust which stopped him from becoming a believer two different point of views
existed which are: 1- the body is evil, 2- the soul’s instability determines if it is evil. So, in
conclusion after Augustine’s baptism his beliefs lead him to recognize that evil is within the
soul’s instability and not within the body. An example of Augustine could be my case as a
Muslim I struggle with things like keeping up with my prayers and doing what God has told me
to do yet in the end I do them regardless but my addiction to games strays me away from God
and I find it hard to turn to God because of this addiction which I am trying to fix.