Allegory of the Cave Sonnet

Well here is my attempt at a Sonnet

There was this dingy cave

with prisoners of the dark

The shadows were all the rave

but they couldn't even hear a bark

What they saw wasn’t reality

Nothing more than mere reflections

Their lives were such a fatality

They couldn't even make corrections

One left and discovered the unknown

He went back to tell the others what he'd seen

But they didn’t believe what he was shown

to his ideas they weren’t exactly keen

One must go out and seek the sunlight

or be left in the dark all day and all night

Brain with 10 Legs

My group for the literature circle contains Whitney Houg, Sarah Stevens, Rachel Nolan, and Amara Sharp. Our plan is to have read all of the book before December 1st. We are splitting the book into four sections and hope to be able to talk about each section. 

Plato's Allegory of the Cave

1. According to Socrates, what does the Allegory of the Cave represent?

-It means that we only know what we see and will only know that unless we are shown the true reality. 

2. What are the key elements in the imagery used in the allegory?

-The prisoners represents our ignorance, the sun represents the truth that we don’t know, the shackles represent the things that hold us back.

3. What are some things the allegory suggests about the process of enlightenment or education?

-It suggests that when opportunity is thrusted upon you, you must take it.

4. What do the imagery of "shackles" and the "cave" suggest about the perspective of the cave dwellers or prisoners?

-The shackles and the cave suggest that prisoners have no idea about life and what its really about. There are shackles on the prisoner’s mind.

5. In society today or in your own life, what sorts of things shackle the mind?

- I feel like almost everything in our society puts shackles on our minds even my parents. They only tell me what they want me to know and won’t answer questions and they have done that since I was little. As we recently learned, the Internet search browsers put shackles on our minds they don’t give us all the facts they only show you what they think you should know. The government doesn’t reveal all the facts the public but maybe thats a good thing. The thing is that we will never know the whole picture so how can we truly know what we believe in.

6. Compare the perspective of the freed prisoner with the cave prisoners?

- The perspective of the freed prisoner is that he has seen and therefore knows, but the cave prisoner only sees shadows therefore his only reality is the shadows.

7. According to the allegory, lack of clarity or intellectual confusion can occur in two distinct ways or contexts. What are they?

-The freed prisoner is confused when he is released from the shackles because all he’s ever known is shadows so that is his reality. So when he enters the real world he must question what is reality.

9. The allegory presupposes that there is a distinction between appearances and reality. Do you agree? Why or why not?

-Their is a distinction between appearances and reality because the shadows were just the appearance of something but not the true reality of what it actually is.

10. If Socrates is incorrect in his assumption that there is a distinction between reality and appearances, what are the two alternative metaphysical assumptions?

-An alternative assumption would be that because all the prisoner’s had come to know were the shadows and because of that the shadows are their reality.

We Hang Together

The Role of Interdependence in Strategic Collaboration Notes:

• Interdependence is the key to strategic alliance
• Strategic alliance- refers to all sorts of collaborative relationships and endeavors
• Inter-organizational relations
• explained in terms of competition and collaboraton 
• The "fittest" aren't the most independent they are just more adaptable.
• The question shouldn't be whether to form a strategic relationship but identifying the right ones and building and sustaining them effectively. 
• How to make it successful-
• Human Factors-
• Trust
• Communication
• Will make people naturally want to sabotage 
• How to use effectively-
• Have understanding of the qualities of collaboration
• How others will view the tools you give them
• How to strengthen-
• Must understand the nature of working relationships within the organization
• Society now champions the "one against the world" ideal 
• Begins at a young age
• Student encouraged to work alone
• Cheating
• To achieve the "one against the world" ideal or independence one must sacrifice something 
• most likely lose the sense of community, teamwork, or belonging to something greater then oneself.
• Increase in people making this sacrifice
• "Fictional characters compel us to reach for the unattainable ideal--the completely self-sufficient human."
• Must answer the "What's in it for me" 
• Strategic Relationships-Values-
• Value of Strategic Relationship
• Factors of reduced costs
• Economy of Scale
• Shared investment burden
• Values of Strategic Relationship
• Integrity
• Quality
• Personal Attitudes
• Beliefs
• Strategic alliances were originally founded on the foundations of trust
• Business Relationships
• Short term
• because of pure self interest
• selfishness
• Interdependence requires that one party do for the other and vice versa
• For strategic alliance to work must agree to set values and rules of engagement
• "Companies are comprised of people. People have interests, personalities and relationships. Neither the most expensive corporate identity nor the most elaborate marketing campaign will ever be as compelling as an individual person."
• Basically, we need each other.

Hamlet Remix

I'm not sure if I am doing this Hamlet Remix thing right or not but this is what I did.

People’s perception of one another is made so quickly. We judge each other based on what we do and say. For someone who says things and never acts on it, I would consider that person to be all talk and no action. As you can probably tell, that’s how I originally judged Hamlet. He talked a big game but never really followed through. After reading deBoer’s essay I had to reconsider my initial judgement of Hamlet. Throughout Hamlet, there are many performative utterances which make us think that maybe words can make just as much of an impact as actions do. 

  Since Hamlet is a character in a story we are unable to fully know everything that he is thinking but through self- overhearing we are able to get a better understanding of how Hamlet thought about things.When we were told memorize “To be, or not to be” I originally thought that there was no point to it. I soon realized that there was a point, by memorizing this soliloquy I was able to put myself in the place of Hamlet and understand more about the character than just reading what was written. I was able to hear myself speaking and know the words in a different more meaningful way. As Hamlet is saying these speeches he is not just talking he is learning about himself as well as the other characters and the audience are learning about him. 

    The obvious question we ask ourselves and the characters ask themselves throughout the play is “Is Hamlet crazy?” Well to be completely honest I thought he was. The way he was calm one second then killing Polonious the next made me think that maybe he was crazy. But as the play progressed I realized he was just manipulating everyone. He wasn’t mad he just wanted people to believehe was.Through Hamlet’s soliloquies we can conclude that Hamlet may be distraught and sometimes a little irrational but he is certainly not crazy. He is conflicted throughout the whole play on what he know is right and wrong and what he does. We can see that his words affect everyone: the characters, the audience and even himself. 

Poetic Inquiry

I chose Shakespeare's Sonnet 28 because I think that it relates close enough to my big question.

SONNET 28

How can I then return in happy plight,
That am debarr'd the benefit of rest?
When day's oppression is not eased by night,
But day by night, and night by day, oppress'd?
And each, though enemies to either's reign,
Do in consent shake hands to torture me;
The one by toil, the other to complain
How far I toil, still farther off from thee.
I tell the day, to please them thou art bright
And dost him grace when clouds do blot the heaven:
So flatter I the swart-complexion'd night,
When sparkling stars twire not thou gild'st the even.
But day doth daily draw my sorrows longer

And night doth nightly make grief's strength seem stronger.

Sonnet Analysis #1

• "little sound" or "little song"
• Patriarch Sonnet-Italian Sonnet
• All sonnets have 14 lines
• Shakespearean Sonnet
• Shakespearean Sonnets have 3 quatrains and one couplet
• A Patriarch is divided into an octet and sextet

Hamlet Essay

People’s perception of one another is made so quickly. We judge each other based on what we do and say. For someone who says things and never acts on it, I would consider that person to be all talk and no action. As you can probably tell, that’s how I originally judged Hamlet. He talked a big game but never really followed through. After reading deBoer’s essay I had to reconsider my initial judgement of Hamlet. Throughout Hamlet, there are many performative utterances which make us think that maybe words can make just as much of an impact as actions do. 

  Since Hamlet is a character in a story we are unable to fully know everything that he is thinking but through self- overhearing we are able to get a better understanding of how Hamlet thought about things. When we were told memorize “To be, or not to be” I originally thought that there was no point to it. I soon realized that there was a point, by memorizing this soliloquy I was able to put myself in the place of Hamlet and understand more about the character than just reading what was written. I was able to hear myself speaking and know the words in a different more meaningful way. As Hamlet is saying these speeches he is not just talking he is learning about himself as well as the other characters and the audience are learning about him. 

    The obvious question we ask ourselves and the characters ask themselves throughout the play is “Is Hamlet crazy?” Well to be completely honest I thought he was. The way he was calm one second then killing Polonious the next made me think that maybe he was crazy. But as the play progressed I realized he was just manipulating everyone. He wasn’t mad he just wanted people to believe he

was.Through Hamlet’s soliloquies we can conclude that Hamlet may be distraught and sometimes a little irrational but he is certainly not crazy. He is conflicted throughout the whole play on what he know is right and wrong and what he does. We can see that his words affect everyone: the characters, the audience and even himself.