The following paragraphs contain 15 subordinate or relative clauses. Identify the subordinate clauses with a single underline; mark relative clauses with a wavy underline.

Plato versus Aristotle Philosophy in the West ultimately boils down to two Greek thinkers from the fourth century BCE: Plato and Aristotle. One of Plato’s most important ideas, which he expressed using Socrates as his source, was his Theory of Forms. Forms were idealized templates for everything that we can sense and think about. For example, horses are horses because they reflect the Ideal Horse, dogs the Ideal Dog, chairs the Ideal Chair, and so on. For Plato, these Forms were not just abstract ideas; they actually existed, but beyond our senses.

Plato explains Forms with the parable of the Cave. A number of prisoners are chained in a cave. Because they are facing away from the entrance, they see on the back wall only shadows from the world outside the cave, and the prisoners believe that the shadows are Reality. However, one prisoner, who is more curious than the others, escapes from the cave, sees the reality that is creating the shadows, and returns to inform the others that what they are seeing is only an illusion. For Plato, then, when we achieve full Wisdom, we see the reality (the Forms) beyond our senses rather than mere shadows (the cave).

Aristotle, who was a student of Plato, rejected much of Plato’s philosophy of Forms; he denied that the “real world” was the Forms beyond the senses. Instead, Aristotle believed that we should learn more about the cave through intelligent use of our senses rather than trying to transcend the senses, which was Plato’s preference.

In the modern Western world, Plato’s philosophy often appears as idealism:

Plato’s present-day followers, who are usually not aware of their debt to Plato, seek the ideal, the perfect, the permanent, the mystical. While most of Aristotle’s followers today are also not aware of their link to his ideas, Aristotelians tend to be realistic and scientific, seeking that which is possible in the world now rather than an idealized Form beyond the world.

So, which philosopher do you prefer?