Deck 7: The Trial and Death of Socrates

Question 1

Knowing something, according to Plato,

A) requires having evidence provided by your senses.
B) b. puts you in touch with reality.
C) is the result of persuasion.
D) means it is very, very unlikely that you are mistaken about it, though that is always possible.

Answer 1

b. puts you in touch with reality.

Question 2

The objects of knowledge, Plato says, are

A) things you can see and touch.
B) the things believed in by everyone in your culture.
C) items in flux, continuously changing from moment to moment.
D) Forms (intelligible realities).

Answer 2

Forms (intelligible realities).

Question 3

Forms are related to visible things by being

A) mirror images of them.
B) ideas of them in our minds.
C) their cause and explanation.
D) identical with the class of things having something in common with a given thing.

Answer 3

their cause and explanation.

Question 4

In Plato's Divided Line,

A) the sections must be equal in length to do the symbolic job he requires of them.
B) b. the intelligible world is related to the visible world as visible things are related to images of them.
C) the intelligible world is related to the visible world as images are related to the things they are images of.
D) science is portrayed as the way to ultimate truth, where the soul can find "traveler's rest and journey's end."

Question 5

The Form of the Good

A) is explained by Plato in terms of still other Forms.
B) is the one and only Form that can be seen with the naked eye.
C) is the ultimate explainer.
D) is located by Plato in the absolute center of the Divided Line.

Question 6

Plato tells us the Form of the Good is like the sun in

A) dazzling our eyes when we first look at it.
B) being located at the extreme end of the intelligible world on the Divided Line.
C) no way whatsoever.
D) being to truth and knowledge what the sun is to light and sight.

Question 7

In the Myth of the Cave,

A) the prisoners represent all of us before we begin to search for wisdom.
B) the prisoners are forced to look directly at the fire, though that hurts their eyes.
C) the exit represents access to the visible world, lighted by the sun.
D) no one who escapes and sees reality as it is would ever return to that dismal place.

Question 8

According to Plato, education is

A) supplying the facts to those who need them.
B) everyone's job.
C) valuable because it pays off in the acquisition of marketable skills.
D) turning the soul of the student toward the real.

Question 9

The ladder of love

A) begins with a vision of Beauty itself, and leads beyond it.
B) b. leads its climbers to more and more satisfying objects of love.
C) begins with erotic love (eros), but leads the climber beyond it to an altogether different kind of love.
D) shows us a pattern that is precisely the reverse of that which we find on the Divided Line.

Question 10

The philosopher, Plato says, cultivates dying. He says this because

A) philosophizing attaches us to intelligible realities, and so separates us from the body.
B) he realizes we all fear death and need help to approach it with courage.
C) philosophers hate life.
D) the wise Silenus has said that the best thing for a human being is not to be, and the next best is to die soon.

Question 11

The soul, Plato tells us, has distinct parts, each of which has a function. For instance, there is:

A) the ego, which is the reality principle
B) the id, or the set of unconscious desires present in every soul
C) the superego, or one's conscience
D) reason, which guides

Question 12

Happiness, according to Plato, is

A) a matter of how you feel.
B) determined by how many of your desires are satisfied.
C) c. a condition of harmony among the parts of the soul.
D) something even a bad person can experience.

Question 13

A moral person

A) may have a rough time in life, but will be admired by all in the end.
B) may or may not be a happy person.
C) is the person considered by a community to be moral.
D) d. will be a happy person.

Question 14

The lesson of the sailors-on-the-ship analogy is that

A) statesmanship, like navigation, requires knowledge.
B) sailors are generally an unruly lot.
C) whoever has power in a state had better watch out, for there are always others ready to snatch it away.
D) democracy is the best form of government.

Question 15

The paradox of the Third Man

A) is resolved by Plato, who shows decisively that it poses no danger to his views.
B) arises from principles Plato is deeply committed to.
C) proves that Plato's doctrine of the Forms is correct.
D) involves at least three male human beings.

Question 16

Draw Plato's Divided Line in the correct proportions, label each section, and explain what the proportionality symbolizes.

Question 17

Distinguish knowledge from opinion.

Question 18

What does an educator do for those he or she "teaches"?

Question 19

What are the parts of the soul? What are their functions?

Question 20

How is "internal justice" related to being a moral person? Explain this in terms of the role of the monster in Plato's image of the man composed of a man, a lion, and a monster.

Question 21

Who should rule in a good state, according to Plato? And why?

Question 22

Using an example, sketch the Third Man problem, the problem Plato himself recognizes with the theory of the Forms.

Question 23

If Plato's Socrates has it right, through what stages must a lover move if he/she is to find ultimate satisfaction?

Question 24

What do you think Antiphon, or Callicles, or Thrasymachus (or some other imagined Sophist) might say in response to Plato's argument that morality is intrinsically good-good as a matter of physis?

Question 25

Use Plato's analogy of the ship, the sailors, and the navigator to explain why he thinks democracy is a poor form of government.

Question 26

How does Plato use mathematics/geometry to refute the skepticism and relativism of the Sophists?

Question 27

If the slave boy has never been instructed in geometry and yet can recognize the correct answer to a geometrical problem, what conclusion does Plato's Socrates think we should draw?

Question 28

What does Plato think morality or justice consists of-in the individual soul and in the state?

Question 29

For Plato, how is the Form of the Good like the sun?

Question 30

Why does Plato think that mathematical knowledge cannot be

Question 31

Sketch the epistemological argument for the Forms.

Question 32

Sketch the metaphysical argument for the Forms.

Question 33

How does Plato understand education? Relate education to the distinction between opinion and knowledge, to his analysis of love, to the Divided Line, and to the cave.

Question 34

What is Plato's argument that morality is a natural good? Relate this argument to the myth of Gyges, to the myth of the charioteer, and to the image of the man, the lion, and the monster.

Question 35

Draw and explain Plato's Divided Line. Show how it fits with the Myth of the Cave, the analogy of the sun, and Plato's view of education.

Question 36

Discuss Plato's theory of the Forms and how they relate to the visible things of this world. Show how themes from both Heraclitus and Parmenides are woven into this theory.

Question 37

Tell the Ring of Gyges story. Then sketch Plato's view of the soul, by which Plato means to convince us that the shepherd would have been happier if he had resisted the temptations of the ring-if he had acted morally rather than immorally.

Question 38

You (yes, you) are Plato. You hear someone expressing the following views:
"Don't give me this crap about morality. We all know that morality is just a matter of the law. And who makes the law? Those in power make the law. And for whose benefit do they make it? For their own, of course. You are so naive! For most of us, being moral is a disadvantage, not a good thing-except as a sort of strategy for managing in society without getting clobbered. Something good in itself? Don't make me laugh."
What do you say?

Question 39

Develop examples of syllogisms different from those in the text. You want some that
• have true premises and are valid (demonstrations)
• are valid but do not have true premises
• do have true premises but are invalid
Students find the use of Venn diagrams to diagnose validity very interesting.

Question 40

I require students to memorize Aristotle's definition of truth. It is short, elegant, and important.

Question 41

Euclid's axioms are a good example of what Aristotle has in mind when he talks of first principles-familiar because the students have all studied geometry.

Question 42

In discussing Aristotle on nature-facts, I find it useful to bring a prop: An orange, perhaps, or an apple or banana (whatever I'm having for lunch that day). The four causes can be nicely illustrated with such an example, too.

Question 43

It is very hard to get students to grasp Aristotle's fundamental view of soul. They invariably think in terms of a thing or substance. Multiply examples like the eye or the axe or the wax seal, and keep hammering away at the idea of function.

Question 44

When discussing Aristotle's critique of pleasure as the good, I tell students a little story. I have, I say, a machine. If they will get into it, this machine will give them-guaranteed-a life of more pleasure than they could get any other way. (You can elaborate on this in any number of directions.) Then I ask them how many would like to get into my machine-oh, wait, I say, there's one thing I forgot to tell you. If you once get into the machine, you can never get out again. But-incredible pleasures for the rest of your life! Then I ask them how many want to get in. Interesting results.

Question 45

Students have a tendency to conclude that for Aristotle the good life is the life of contemplation-maybe because that is discussed last. Emphasize that there are many kinds of good lives exemplifying many kinds of virtues. True, there is one that is best. But it is not Aristotle's view that only the philosopher can live a good human life.

Question 46

At some point you may want to make use of the symbolism in Raphael's painting on the cover, with Plato pointing upward and Aristotle having his hand out flat-each indicating what he takes to be reality.