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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. What does Socrates assert about his views of the ideal state?
(a) They will bring about the coming of a new empire.
(b) They break certain established social norms.
(c) They are based on insidious accusations against the current ruling power.
(d) They are without flaw.

2. To understand Ion's poetically inspired spirit, Socrates employs a metaphor of which of the following?
(a) An eye attempting to see itself, explaining how our mental visions are limited by the bounds of our brain.
(b) A dying animal to explain how the sole individual is part of a significant collective.
(c) A magnet to explain how a poet's inspiration moves from the muse to the audience.
(d) A newly born start to explain how small and insignificant our world is in the greater picture.

3. Who said the following: "may not the art of which neither teachers nor disciples exist be assumed to be incapable of being taught?"
(a) Socrates.
(b) Meno's wife.
(c) Meno.
(d) The slave boy.

4. Why does Socrates discuss Asclepius' philosophy?
(a) His leadership is well established.
(b) He has a practical approach of only treating patients whom he knows he can heal.
(c) His leadership is a good example of how not to lead.
(d) He disagrees with Socrates about the ideal republic.

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

6. At whose house does the Symposium take place?
(a) Phaedrus.
(b) Alcidbides.
(c) Socrates.
(d) Agathon.

7. Which of the following does Socrates reason about Ion?
(a) Ion is a handsome, though misguided poet.
(b) Ion knows more than Socrates.
(c) Ion is sad when his crowds are sad and happy when his crowds are happy.
(d) Ion must be outside his mind when he recites poetry.

8. Who gives the last formal speech at the symposium?
(a) Appolodorus.
(b) Socrates.
(c) Pausanias.
(d) Agathon.

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

10. Whose side is Adeimantus on, at least in the beginning of the dialogue?
(a) He has his own distinct position.
(b) Socrates'.
(c) He does not advocate his own position, and he is on neither Glaucon's nor Socrates' side.
(d) Glaucon's.

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

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

13. In the dialogue, Meno blames the confusion in his speech on which of the following?
(a) Himself, because he has not had ample time to prepare for a deep conversation.
(b) Himself, because he does not think himself a good exemplar of what virtue is.
(c) Socrates, because Socrates is not listening to Meno's points.
(d) Socrates, because Socrates is deliberately confusing Meno about a subject which Meno thought he knew.

14. To illustrate one facet of his argument, Socrates employs the help of which character?
(a) Plato to clarify Socrates' words for a perplexed Meno.
(b) A nearby slave boy to whom he teaches simple geometry.
(c) Meno's wife.
(d) A nearby guard who speaks about virtuous people he knows.

15. In Socrates' ideal city, poets and soothsayers:
(a) Would lead religious ceremonies.
(b) Would be rich while the workers would be poor.
(c) Would be considered useless and expelled.
(d) Would not be allowed to speak falsely about the gods.

Short Answer Questions

1. In Socrates' republic, judges must__________.

2. Who says, at the very end of Book II, "I completely endorse these patterns, and I would enact them as laws"?

3. In Republic: Book III, Socrates is first concerned with:

4. Where is wisdom found in Socrates' ideal republic?

5. Why is Socrates worried about literature which contains wayward characters?

(see the answer keys)

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