One of the most famous illustrations from Plato involves his so-called "cave" parable. The parable is found in Book VII of Plato's Republic, and represents his introduction to a theory of practical education in his ideal society. You will read this parable in the collateral reading assignment. You will also have an opportunity to watch a short YouTube video that dramatizes the parable. The students in the video class have just watched the video as well.

The cave parable is intended to show that there is a higher level of truth, but that many people never discover this higher level, being bound as prisoners in a sort of intellectual cave. All the prisoners in the cave ever see are shadows, and they come to believe that the shadows are reality. Only by escaping from the cave is it possible to experience the higher world of the forms, the world of truth rather than shadow and illusion.

As we have noted before, the teaching of Plato bears some similarity to a Christian perspective, but Plato definitely stops short of a vision truly reflective of biblical teaching. It is nevertheless helpful to read his account of the cave, and to compare Plato's thought to the truths set forth in the Word of God.

1. Introduction to the Major Themes of Philosophy
2. The Ionian Philosophers
3. The Italian Philosophers
4. The Athenian Pluralists
5. The Life and Times of Socrates
6. Introduction to Plato
7. Plato's World of the Forms
8. Plato's Parable of the Cave
9. Dualism in Plato
10. Introduction to Aristotle
11. Aristotle's Metaphysics
12. Aristotle's Categories
13. Aristotle's Theory of Language
14. Aristotle's God
15. The Epicureans
16. Stoicism
17. Philo of Alexandria
18. The Christian Synthesis
19. Early Christian Apologists
20. Antiochan Christianity
21. Alexandrian Christianity
22. The Council of Nicaea
23. Manichaeism
24. Neo-Platonism
25. The Life of Augustine
26. Overview of Augustin's Thought
27. Augustin's Epistemology
28. Augustin's Epistemology (part 2)
29. Augustin's Theory of Faith
30. Augustin's Understanding of the Church
31. The Pelagian Controversy
32. The Pelagian Controversy (cont)
33. The Pelagian Controversy (concl)
34. Anselm of Canterbury
35. Anselm's Cur Deus Homo
36. Introduction to the Classical Synthesis
37. The Classical Synthesis (part 2)
38. Thomas Aquinas and the Five Ways
39. Art, Philosophy, and the Renaissance

This wide ranging course starts with the pre-Socratic philosophers of the ancient world, and traces the history of philosophical speculation across the ages up to the present. Included along the way is special attention to the greatest Christian thinkers in history, including Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Luther, Calvin and many others.