Paper#1 Metaphysics Essays - Ballinger, , Term Papers

[Sarah Ballinger]Core Paper #1: Intellectual Caves[King] In the movie "The Truman Show", the main character Truman is living a life in which all of his experiences are simulated, but he believes that he lives in the real world. This resembles what the prisoners went through in "The Myth of the Cave", when they were stuck in chains and could only see the shadows on the wall. The puppet masters outside of the cave decide what the prisoners see and hear, thus they can create an entire alternate reality. Truman's reality is also staged for him by the directors of the show. Both Truman and the prisoners are presented with a reality, and they have no reason not to believe in this theatrical world. When released from these intellectual caves, they cannot discern what is real since their sense of reality is faulty. Everything in Truman's life was made up such as his job, where he lived, his friends, and his relationships. Truman believes that he is in control of his own life. This makes a big difference in his life because in his reality everyt hing works perfectly, which is usually not the case in the real world. Because of this, Truman would not know how to deal with tough situations that occur in the real world. Most of my childhood I spent a lot of time at my grandparents' house, since both of my parents had full-time jobs. When I was around 6 years old, my grandmother told my brother and I to run away if we see a spider. She told us that if a spider touches our skin, it will bite us and there would be nothing she could do to save us. This terrified me, and for good reason! I believed everything my grandma told me, so I had no reason not to believe what she had told me. From this moment on I was scared of spiders, and I stayed far away from them for years due to this reality I believed. I wouldn't say that these perceptions were necessarily appealing, but they were easy to believe for a few reasons. One reason was at my age, I believed almost anything my parents and grandparents told me. Also, I had never had an encounter with a spider that bit me, so I had no proof to discount what I believed to be true. The moment I began to doubt this perception was when my dad had gotten bit by a spider . I was so upset and I cried to my dad, explaining to him what was going to happen. He laughed and told me that it wasn't true, he said he would be perfectly fine, and he was. At this point I had to try and discern the truth. I was confused because I had believed this to be true for years, and now this view of reality was proved false. Even though I know now that this story I was told about spiders is untrue, I still today carry an excessive fear of spiders. This makes me question if once we escape an intellectual cave, if we still carry parts of that alternate reality. The world we live in can sometimes deceive us of the truth. We as humans often choose to believe what we wish, instead of what is true. Such as the great thinker Plato believes in the world of the forms, and often dismisses the physical world. It is easy to follow Plato's idea of reality, because it cannot be proven wrong with solid evidence. In that reality, no one can prove its true or untrue, and so it can seem much more appealing. Thus, we must question everything we believe in, because questioning our beliefs is how we discover the truth. Plato entrusts reason, but it can occasionally be difficult to reason through the truth. He says to be weary of material objects, telling us that they are not real and are merely copies of the real thing. He says that the spirit is valid, but how can we prove something is reality if there is no reason or confirmation to believe in it? Discovering the truth will make us better, more intellectually diverse