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This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. What does Socrates believe tyrannical power has little to do with?

2. How does Gorgias say one should use power?

3. Why does Socrates hold rhetoricians in low esteem?

4. What does Socrates believe he can avoid in being corrected?

5. What does Socrates believe makes punishment beneficial?

Short Essay Questions

1. When an unjust act is committed, Socrates asks whether the wrongdoer or the sufferer is more wretched. Why?

2. Why can the art of rhetoric not impart knowledge, according to Gorgias?

3. How have we seen rhetoric successfully executed in the conversation in Chapter 1?

4. What is Socrates' differentiation between pleasures and gratifications in different skills?

5. Why does Socrates believe only those without knowledge can be persuaded by rhetoric?

6. What makes Socrates see punishment (a negative action) as a positive one?

7. How is it that one can suffer justly or unjustly? What makes the difference in Socrates' opinion?

8. Why does Socrates believe that it is important for a wrongdoer's soul be brought to justice?

9. In terms of ethics, why does Socrates consider rhetoric a dangerous tool?

10. How does Gorgias see rhetoric aiding to the common good of humans?

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Discuss Socrates' and Callicles' conflict of justice in relation to human nature.

Essay Topic 2

Discuss the nature of good and bad as discussed by the philosophers in Gorgias.

Essay Topic 3

Discuss and define Socrates' power, such as where it comes from, how it is used, and the ideology and reality of its usefulness.

(see the answer keys)

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