One of the major contributors to modern knowledge was the Greeks. They gave us knowledge in the fields of math through Pythagoras and his theorem on right triangles, and Science through Aristotle's study of biology and Democritus' study of atoms. Of course, although some may see their philosophies and beliefs to be inapplicable to today's society, Socrates', Plato's, and Aristotle's philosophies changed the way people think, and greatly affected the development of many western cultures, and even our own.

The first in line of the 3 great philosophers of Greece was Socrates. Born in Athens in 469 BC, he was born in a relatively poor family. His father, Sophroniscus, was a sculptor and his mother, Phaenarete, was a mid-wife. Socrates himself was a sculptor, bu

- The people were lifting the yellow object.

"You must believe, in order to see." Though most people will probably contradict this statement, I think that it is very true. To believe does not really mean that you understand a certain concept. To believe simply means that you find it to be true. Take a certain concept, such as love. If you see a couple so in love, that they would sacrifice their lives for each other, if you firmly believe that there is no such thing, then you will still not believe that there is love. Of course, there are times that proof is needed to sway one's opinion. There is indeed, a balance. Most people need to see in order to believe a certain concept or idea. Proof is needed. "To see is to believe" probably applies best to matters concerning science. But, there are some things in this world that we just can't prove, but are thought to be true, such as God. Most people also need to believe in order to see, because if they do not believe in it in the first place, they will refuse to see the truth even with proof. "To believe is to see", in my opinion, best applies to religion. Admit it or not, there are some people who are very close minded, especially Christians. I have seen sites wherein they discriminate against rock music, calling it a tool of the devil. How idiotic. They refuse to see the truth, which is that it is not all 'evil' as they proclaim it to be, because they unwaveringly believe that it is. A balance must exist between believing and seeing, because one cannot always do without the other. This idea of believing is tied with his idea that the world is "a manifestation of perfect ideas in an unseen world." This means that the world is filled with perfect ideas such as piety, love, and friendship, yet these ideas are often imperfect to a large degree, if not completely absent or obscured. But how can we have an idea of these perfect things if we have never experienced it ourselves? That is why he believed that man came from a perfect world, and then came to this imperfect world, much like Christianity's "The Fall of Man." He called this remembering of the perfect world as "Reminiscence." And the reason why we so wish to attain this perfection is because we want to return to the perfect world, or in Christianity, heaven.

The reason he opened the school was because he wanted to educate those that could become great leaders. He wanted leaders that were just, and did not rule with violence, unruliness, or incompetence. Unfortunately, however, he was not able to influence Dionysius II and Dion, tyrants of Syracuse. They supposedly lacked the discipline and open mindedness to learn, and thus ruled in ways that would disappoint Plato heavily. Dion was assassinated. Without a competent or good leader, a certain country or civilization cannot prosper, that is why he gave such an effort to educate future leaders so that they would lead people in the right way.

I conducted a survey as to how people understood my drawing (almost exact drawing) of the Allegory of the Cave, and it yielded many interesting results. I received such answers like:

Some common words found in the essay are:
II Dion, Unfortunately Alexander, Aristotle Obviously, BC AD, Allegory Cave, Aristotle Probably, Socrates Method, Christianity's Fall, God Socrates, BC Socrates, live life, perfect world, virtue = knowledge, = knowledge, virtue =, believed people, believe believe, special wisdom, maxim virtue, allegory cave, cue stick, maxim virtue =, women emotional type, life reason meaning, near entrance cave,
Approximate Word count = 5219
Approximate Pages = 21 (250 words per page double spaced)