Essays on Four Hundred

The Cave

Plato’s The Cave is an allegorical story which Socrates was telling one of his followers Glaucon to explain to him the difference between a philosopher who seeks wisdom and others who aim to remain in ignorance. In the story, Socrates tells of a group of people who have been chained facing an empty wall their entire lives. They are unable to look anywhere, except the wall. Right behind them is an assembly line of items that are constantly going by which are reflected onto the wall by the light which comes from the fire that is behind the ...

Question 1

The tax rate, in any taxation system, refers to the ratio according to which a person or business is taxed. There are several methods in which the tax rate can be presented, and one of these is the marginal tax rate, which can be described as the tax rate that demands that an individual should pay a specified amount for every additional dollar of income (Miller and Selden, 2013). It is, therefore, the tax percentage that is accorded to the last dollar that an individual earns. In 2013, the United States of America recorded a marginal federal income tax ...

Introduction

Athens and Sparta were the two most powerful city-states in the ancient Greek that developed during the Classical Age. Despite being in the same territory, they had very different modes of governance and social lives. They had different forms of governments, but both governments were elected by the people they ruled (Aristotle and Lord 7). Their geographical locations were also different. Sparta was naturally protected by mountains that surrounded it while Athens was built on a hill just below Acropolis (Aristotle and Lord 16). It was difficult to invade Athens because it was almost exposed, hence, making it vulnerable ...

The Coyolxauhqui Stone

Found at the base of Templo Mayor’s stairs, the Coyolxauhqui is a large, shield-shaped stone relief similar to what was being described in the legend. The sculpture might have been made during the 14th century as the Templo Mayor was built in 1325. It is said that the Templo Mayor was constructed based on a prophecy followed by the Aztecs wherein they will find an eagle perched on a cactus while devouring a snake. The Templo Mayor continued to expand for two centuries. During the time of Spanish Conquest in 1521, it reached a total population of 300,000 and was considered as ...