Description

CRITICAL THINKING LECTURE

PLATO’S CAVE ALLEGORY

The Cave Allegory is one of the most famous passages of philosophy, and I think all students should study it sometime during their education.  It asks its readers to liberate themselves from the conventional bonds that chain them. There are many essays, articles, lecture series, etc. on this fundamental text; there are more nuanced and rigorous academic writings and talks available, but my intention is to provide a 90 minute to two-hour lecture for high school, college, and first or second year university students.

It is a wonderful text to pair with works of fiction; for instance, I teach it alongside The Crucible, The Great Gatsby, Brave New World, 1984, The Giver, and many others.

INCLUDED IN THIS PRODUCT ARE THE FOLLOWING:

✺ An excerpt, five pages, from Plato’s Republic – Book VII the Cave Allegory.

The Republic is one of the Platonic dialogues that I do my VNT assignment on.  I also lecture on Plato’s Theaetetus, Apology, Nietzsche’s Thus Spake Zarathustra, and excerpts from Thucydides.  I will be creating lectures on these thinkers in the coming months.  This section of the Republic, without my notes, is also in my VNT lecture on Plato’s Republic.

• VISUAL NOTETAKING THE CAVE ALLEGORY!

✺ I AM CREATING two different products, and a third that combines them, to offer teachers a choice in case they wanted the lecture notes but not the VNT information.  You do not have to do the VNT assignment with this lecture. It is a standalone lecture on the Cave Allegory. The VNT is a suggestion.

✺ 20 pages of teacher notes.  Some of the pages of the text are annotated with these notes.

✺ The five pages of text are annotated with some of these notes.  I show this to my students on a Whiteboard while I lecture. I do not give these notes out to the students, but rather ask them to write out the parts that are displayed in red.  There are some notes that I discuss but do not expect my students to write down.

✺ The VNT example that is on the cover along with the student’s explanation of the VNT.

✺ There are five long answer/essay suggestions.

✺ Eight questions for discussion that are in the presentation and a separate PDF.

✺ A short test with 10 multiple-choice questions and answers.

✺ The five pages of Plato’s Republic, without my notes, that you may distribute to students before the lecture.

My success with Visual Notetaking has absolutely changed my teaching style.  I have noticed, however, colleagues that attempt to recreate the VNT in their classes are not always so successful.  The reason I surmise, through conversations, is that the text they are teaching is not visually engaging. The allegory is the perfect lecture.  Its main components are easily adapted to imagery – in fact, the cave allegory begins with the line “make an image.” More than that, the allegory is a liberating and thoughtful text and loudly proclaims to its listeners to break the chains that bind them!  Teenagers often think they are enslaved or trapped and love the idea of liberation and freedom from the oppression that they feel.

All rights reserved by author