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This test consists of 15 multiple choice questions and 5 short answer questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. In Republic: Book III, Socrates is first concerned with:
(a) Methods of practicing medicine.
(b) The end of the world.
(c) The corruption of the youth.
(d) A citizens' revolt.

2. How does Socrates plan to keep the soldiers of the republic from fighting?
(a) He trusts that anyone who becomes a solider would put his state before his personal emotions.
(b) He reasons that if they make the most money, they will always be happy.
(c) He reasons that if they belonged to the same family, they would not fight.
(d) Socrates does not have a measure for ensuring peace among the guardian-class.

3. In order to respond to Glaucon's objections, Socrates ___________________.
(a) Posits an ideal city so that he might discover where justice comes from.
(b) Changes the subject completely.
(c) Tries to find justice in animals before finding justice in humans.
(d) Analogizes justice to fine skills like woodworking and carpentry.

4. In his first argument, Glaucon asserts that is better to __________.
(a) Appear just than actually be just.
(b) Be just than appear just.
(c) Be unjust than appear unjust.
(d) Appear unjust than actually be just.

5. In Book V, what is the philosopher concerned with, according to Socrates?
(a) Beautiful things.
(b) The afterlife.
(c) Absolute being.
(d) Justice, and only justice.

6. Where is wisdom found in Socrates' ideal republic?
(a) In the moral law.
(b) In the slaves who labor in it.
(c) In those who rule and order it.
(d) In Socrates, and others like him.

7. What does Socrates tell Ion about a person who can recite poetry well?
(a) Memorizing poetry is a way of balancing the soul.
(b) Ion should memorize philosophy instead of poetry.
(c) Only a person who understands a poem's meaning could be a good reciter.
(d) Ion must not know the meaning of poetry if he just memorizes it.

8. Socrates concludes which of the following about virtue?
(a) If it manifests differently in different people, than it cannot have one definition.
(b) If it can be taught then it is knowledge.
(c) If it is the same in everyone, then we should be able to define it.
(d) It cannot be taught and is therefore not knowledge.

9. When he first meets Socrates, Meno asks the following question:
(a) Is justice necessarily a good thing?
(b) Where he can learn how to be a philosopher?
(c) How do we know if what we are seeing in the physical world actually exists?
(d) Is virtue taught, or is it inherent to good people?

10. Who is Glaucon?
(a) One of the interlocutors.
(b) The ideal solider.
(c) Socrates' son.
(d) Not philosophically ambitious.

11. In Socrates' ideal nation, literature which depicts the afterlife should depict it as___________.
(a) Positive.
(b) Negative.
(c) Mysterious.
(d) Foreboding.

12. How does Thrasymachus first define justice?
(a) "Acting selflessly, so that the kingdom may prosper."
(b) "Being impartial and unbiased in all decisions."
(c) "Making laws to one's own disadvantage."
(d) "Nothing other than the advantage of the stronger."

13. According to Socrates' insinuation, artistic knowledge is characterized as which of the following?
(a) Universal.
(b) Subjective.
(c) Useless.
(d) Ironic.

14. What are "the three"?
(a) The members of the dialogue.
(b) Religious temples in Socrates' ideal republic.
(c) The constitution of the city's government.
(d) The diagram that Socrates uses to prove the soul is immortal.

15. What poet is cited by Cephalus to explain the paradox of old age?
(a) Homer.
(b) Pindar.
(c) Petrach.
(d) Shakespeare.

Short Answer Questions

1. By the end of Book IV Socrates has still not proved _______________.

2. When Cephalus tends to his sacrifice, who immediately takes his place in conversation with Socrates?

3. At whose house does the Symposium take place?

4. Who gives the last formal speech at the symposium?

5. What does Cephalus say to Socrates about old age?

(see the answer keys)

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