Blog on Perspectives - Andrew Chiang

I found Plato's "Allegory of the Cave" a very interesting text. I had never read anything of the sort before, and, although hard to comprehend, I found it very amusing. The different ideas and images created by the text are things that normally a "normal" person would think regularly. The idea of questioning reality and what you actually know in life through the example of the prisoners was quite intriguing. It made perfect sense even though at first it was kind of weird. It made me think about what if I was in such position, and how I would react. Would I do the same thing as the prisoner? Would my fellow prisoners recognize me? I kept asking myself what if this happened, or what if that happened, would the prisoner react differently? The fact that the concept was hard to grasp made me wonder about possible alternatives of what was happening, or if really this was accurate at all. I asked myself: what if Plato was wrong? Even though it may have been just me being a bit narrow minded, like I am usually, maybe, since it is part of me to be curious as well and it is within my nature to question everything in life and take on different perspectives, it may have been a valid point to make. What if any theory of the world is not the reality, but perhaps the reality we want to see? Or perhaps the only reality we can see?
These first TOK classes have been extremely interesting, as it forces people outside of their comfort zone and adopt new perspectives. I believe these news perspectives will be very important for all the IB subjects, but most importantly, for life after the IB. The map exercise was an important example to show us what different ways of thinking there are, and how a simple idea can change the way you think about everything. I am really looking forward to expand the ways I see things, and use the knowledge I gain from TOK and apply it to the way I think in other subjects and other things in my personal life.