There is a parallel between the status of the prisoners and spectators in cinema. The spectators of the cinema are held captive by the screen; they are unable to free themselves from the performance before them. They cannot see anything around them other than the performance. The prisoners are kept captive by their status and cannot free themselves from trudging along, each person in front of the other and unable to see anything beyond that.

We are deceived by movies and other media in many senses, but not all. Plato’s argument is that the media we are subjected to prevents us from recognizing any truth or the reality around us, as our perception is entirely altered by media. However, I believe that though one can be heavily influenced by media, through unconscious and conscious messaging perpetuated in it, there is still one’s own mindset. Multiple different forms of media and multiple arguments can bombard an individual, and yet not everyone has the same opinion because they reach their own conclusions. We are all influenced by many outside influences, but I disagree that media can fully alter our sense of truth and reality. People are capable of using reason and reaching their own conclusions outside of media and movies.

Revision: After reading Plato and watching the trailer for Don Jon in class, I differ from my previous opinion. I believe that media has the ability to cause individuals to form expectations around life and ideas, expectations that are often unrealistic. I find that people can form these expectations around what Plato would consider essences, such as beauty, but also around other ideas that he would consider more base, such as love or emotions. As seen in Don Jon, Don formed unrealistic expectations around sex because of the media he consumed, his girlfriend formed unrealistic expectations around love because of the media she consumed, and Don Jon’s family formed unrealistic expectations around family that they could not fulfill. I often find myself doing similar things, having unrealistic expectations of love based on Korean dramas I watch, or unrealistic expectations of beauty that I try to fulfill even unconsciously. These expectations we all try to fulfill based on media are expectations that are unavoidable but something we must be conscious of.

Going along with that, sometimes we mistake fiction for reality but sometimes not. To take the example of social messaging in media, women and men often believe they must act or buy certain things in order to feel socially acceptable. These messages can be entirely fictional, and perhaps even the societal message could be somewhat fictional. However, the social norm that women and men feel they must fulfill in order to feel acceptance is, in fact, real in their minds, and perhaps real in society. The social norm of women having to shave their legs and the commercial media around this message is entirely fictional in the sense that it has no true purpose, but real in the fact that it is a very real social standard.

Revision: It is possible that the physical world is not reality. According to Plato, the physical world is the base level, and there is a world of essences that we must all strive to reach. The world of the physical is a failed mirror of what things could be, and by relying on the physical world to define reality, we limit ourselves. It is easy to say that our reality is reality because it is tangible and therefore, we convince ourselves that it must be the standard by which all other realities must be judged. However, as Plato argues, the material is the lowest level of human capacity– an argument that I can agree with. There must be something beyond the material, as Plato seems to believe.

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1. Begging the Question: It is necessary for you to listen to me, because I am your mother.
2. Ad Hominem: “If Hillary Clinton can’t satisfy her husband, what makes her think she can satisfy America?” – Donald J. Trump
3. Equivocation: Philosophy helps you to form arguments. But I dislike arguing, so philosophy is a negative subject to learn.
4. Slippery Slope: If you are friendly to everyone, you’ll eventually become friends with bad people. If you are friends with bad people, they’ll introduce you to other bad people. If you are introduced to a bad person, you’ll become manipulated into dating them, because all your bad friends say they’re great. If you become manipulated into dating them, they’ll manipulate you into giving them money and giving up everything you like to appease them. If you give up everything you like and your money, you’ll think you only have them and rely on them. If you only rely on them, you’ll be convinced you have to marry them. If you marry them, they’ll inevitably divorce you and take the kids. If they divorce you and take the kids you’ll be left at home, penniless and lonely, and the weird uncle that comes to your sister’s family dinners. Don’t become that weird uncle. Be unfriendly.
5. Straw Man: Bernie Sander’s Medicare for All is a socialist, communist plan that’s going to take away our perfectly good healthcare and violate our freedom of choice.
6. Tu Quoque: You can’t lecture me on breakups. You just got dumped!
7. Non- Sequitur: Alexandria Ocasio Cortez was a bartender. She became the Representative of New York. I have to bartend to hold a representative office in government.
8. False Dichotomy: For global warming to exist, the whole earth must be extremely hot. I am holding a snowball in my hand. Therefore, global warming can’t exist, since the cold and global warming cannot exist at the same time.
9. Argument from Ignorance: You can’t prove that I’m not the second coming of Christ. Therefore, I am the second coming of Christ, and must be treated as such.
10. Red Herring: Calling for additional impeachment witnesses is a threat to national security and distracts from the real issue of war with Iran.
11. Ad misericordiam: You can’t be mad at me, my dog died three days ago and my grandma is hospitalized.
12. Hasty Generalization: All men are trash.

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1: Beliefs, regardless of their importance, are always significant and leave a lasting effect on the person holding the belief and society as a whole.

2: Due to the fact that beliefs impact all of us, if one holds a false belief or does not question their own beliefs, it will negatively affect society.

3: The only way to avoid false/negative beliefs is to constantly remain skeptical and question everything we believe.

C: Therefore, it is our obligation as humans in a society to remain doubtful about what we believe and put every belief through extensive investigation and skepticism.

This argument is overall a strong argument with fair enough soundness and validity to regard it as such. Clifford clearly uses examples and reasoning to explain why beliefs are important to the individual, in that, regardless of if we act on our beliefs or not, he believes they will manifest in a different manner. Therefore, false or negative beliefs will, in the end, influence us and the world around us. However, he does not thoroughly explain why or how and individual and their beliefs must align with what is good for society. Why do people have an obligation to do good upon the world? And how does each individual understand that so-called duty? Is it necessary for us to uphold and execute this duty we have to ourselves and each other, for the good of humanity? Regardless of one’s own belief that doing good for humanity is an objectively necessary thing, Clifford does not sufficiently explain the necessity of this duty in his argument.

In addition, the idea that the solution to filtering out false beliefs is to remain critical is a believable statement. However, how can the individual’s influence on their vision of skepticism counter this? One person can believe that they have put their own beliefs through every form of questioning imaginable, and other individual could believe the same thing about their beliefs, and yet, they could not agree. Why? Because their levels of skepticism may be different. How can there be one right method of questioning one’s beliefs when everyone thinks differently? Yes, society has an overarching message of morality, but that also differs from country to country, city to city, person to person. Perhaps it is not Clifford’s point that everyone’s beliefs and questioning of such beliefs have to align, but rather, that we simply need to remain mindful, individually, to ensure that society is not affected, but it still begs the question of what is a right way to question beliefs.

There are not many fallacies, if any at all, in Clifford’s argument. Perhaps a fallacy of presumption, in that Clifford makes the conclusion that we have an obligation to do good for society, and that each of us have a similar method of questioning our belief systems.

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Blog Prompt 2: (This particular blog will not be 300 words or follow the general checklis

Valid argument with a sound conclusion:

1. Men are funny.
2. Women are not men.
3. Women are not funny.

Sound argument

1. If one is human, they cannot breathe underwater.
2. I am human.
3. I cannot breathe underwater.

Weak inductive argument

1. A white man was racist to me once.
2. A different white man was also racist to me another time.
3. Therefore, all white men are racist.

Strong inductive argument

1. The majority of spiders weave webs.
2. A black widow is a spider.
3. It weaves webs.

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1. Injustice is when a person or group in a position of power dismisses or invalidates the voice of the suppressed minority.
2. Injustice is when someone’s actions or lack thereof affect another person inequitably or without remediation.

Conclusion: Injustice is when a powerful party’s actions or lack thereof affect the suppressed minority inequitably or without remediation.

A literature teacher at my school who teaches an accelerated program has a reputation as a predator among students– namely, everyone knows he is handsy and inappropriate conduct towards girls. Though he has this reputation, little action has ever been taken and everything is kept under wraps he is in a position of power. As a teacher he is in control of students’ grades and therefore students are afraid to speak up and out against him. In the rare occasion that students have come forward to the program coordinator, the complaints are dismissed or they are simply moved out of the class. I recently came forward to another teacher in the program about my own experience with him, but I was made aware of the sad reality that none of the other teachers knew of his reputation and that it would be near impossible to make a case out of this considering the school and district’s track record regarding cases of very real sexual assault. A girl had sued the district the year before for failing to hold her rapists accountable, causing her to fail her classes and drop out of school. The lack of action on the part of the district in the administration at my school affected this girl inequitably in that her rapists were never held accountable and she was forced to take legal action. I am still working to figure out a way that will protect incoming high school students from this predatory teacher, and yet it is extremely difficult due to the fact that I’m a woman and a student at a school that refuses to listen or believe the many students who come forward about sexual harassment and assault perpetrated by these men in positions of power.

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