Just a quick summary of what is going on in the class at the moment,
Lectures: we are looking at the definition of knowledge and explicitly knowing = perceiving. This is a form of empiricism, or naive empiricism, where knowledge is an immediate apprehension of the external world by the faculty of perception.
Seminars: you should have had a quick discussion of Plato’s cave. One of the most famous metaphors in philosophy, and one ought to be wary. Ask yourself why it appears in a book of political philosophy and not a dialogue on epistemology. Ask yourself why it purports to assert a theory that Plato is later on going to criticize himself. Think about it like this: what if society was really going wrong, so the government commissioned a series of informative films (based on lies) to make things better as decided by experts who know best? Would you be happy about this? What if things were going to get better and the experts were right, but couldn’t prove it to you? Would the films (rhetoric) be a problem? Would they be a problem for Plato?