fandomhigh | Practical Philosophy, Wednesday

"There aren't many philosophical thought experiments that get as much airtime as Plato's allegory of the cave," Ender said. "For the few of you who might not have been exposed to it - Plato ascribes to his mentor Socrates a story about a group of prisoners, chained to the wall in a cave. They can only see the wall in front of them. Behind them, there's a fire, and behind the fire, men and women pass by bearing figurines. But because of where they're trapped, the prisoners can only see the shadows. The shadows, then, are reality to them - only by leaving the cave would they be able to discover the truth behind the shadows, the perfect forms."

He sat back.

"Plato believed strongly in the theory of Forms," he said. "Everything we known and see, every object and every idea, is but an imperfect shadow of something greater, something pure and abstract."

He took a swig of water. "We won't be too concerned with Plato today, or at least his ideas," he said, "but we can use some of his vocabulary to talk about the subjectivity of our experiences and our worldviews. After all, Plato wanted to believe badly in some perfect world above our own - some solid truths that could not be seen in any other light."

"We live in a world where most are predisposed to investing in some kind of doctrine. Whether it be the religion you believe in or the morals you hold dear, there are some things we don't seek to question. Most of us like to believe that there really are perfect Forms of some capacity - abstracts that, when achieved, would bring perfection."

His mouth curved. "Of course, I don't need to tell you that isn't true," he said. "But there's a difference between knowing that and practicing it. So today, I'd like to pose you all a challenge - what's something you believe in that you've never really thought to question? Maybe it's something that informs the way you look at the people around you. Maybe it's something about how you feel about yourself. You don't need to denounce whatever it is that this is - I just ask you to find something you've never felt needed questioning."

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"The importance of being good," Kathy said, thoughtfully. "That being a good person is the best thing you can strive to be."

"That's very broad," Ender pointed out. "We all have some craving to be 'good'-- it's the definition of good that matters."

"And that's the part I never really thought about," Kathy said. "Growing up it meant stuff like being an obedient daughter, getting excellent grades, not making my dad angry, studying hard, being nice to my sister. But even now that I realize that those are very limited definitions of being good, they're my still my default responses. It's easy to ignore a lot of the other stuff I do if I didn't study hard enough for a test or haven't called home often enough to show the proper levels of hyodo--filial piety."

"I always ask when people tell me this or that about 'being good'," Ender said. "It's a good issue to raise - our most-unquestioned ideas have to do with what that word means. We internalize the definition when we're very young."

In his case, 'good' just meant 'not being like Peter'.

"Are you finding the definition shifting at all?"

"Of course," Kathy said. "I mean, it's hard to consider yourself a good person just for getting A's once you're old enough to understand the wider world. But I haven't really settled on a good answer, either. Is 'being good' even enough? Most people just conflate 'being good' with not being bad. But does that really mean anything?"

Practical Philosophy, Wednesday

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