View a FREE sample

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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Though Glaucon is primarily concerned about justice within the individual, Socrates first begins by analyzing __________.
(a) Justice as it relates to an entire city's population.
(b) Justice as it relates to a small family.
(c) Virtue as it is demanded of the city's leaders.
(d) Glaucon's own virtue.

2. How does Meno respond to Socrates' question: "Do bees differ as bees, because there are many different kinds of them; or, are they not rather to be distinguished by some other quality, as for example beauty, size, or shape?"
(a) "I should say that bees must differ from one another, as bees."
(b) "They're just bees. Who cares?"
(c) "I don't understand your question."
(d) "I should answer that bees do not differ from one another, as bees."

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

4. How does Dimotia characterize love?
(a) Curious and enigmatic, like the Gods.
(b) Beautiful and pure, like virtue or reason.
(c) Crude and deceitful, like the desire for immortality.
(d) Grounded and rational, like a mathematical equation.

5. Who are the rulers in Socrates' republic?
(a) The philosophers.
(b) The warriors.
(c) The students.
(d) The doctors.

6. What is the major point of Aristophanes' speech?
(a) Love is the desire for unity, because man and woman were once a unified being.
(b) Love is as complicated and confusing as good poetry.
(c) Men loving woman is necessarily better than men loving men, because the former allows for procreation.
(d) Everything eventually dies, so it is pointless to love anything.

7. Who is Socrates walking with when he is stopped by a group of men urging him to come to Cephalus' house?
(a) Meno.
(b) Thrasymachus.
(c) Plato.
(d) Glaucon.

8. According to Socrates' view of justice, a ruler should always:
(a) Put his own interest before those of his people.
(b) Foster a combination of fear and loyalty within his subjects.
(c) Strike injustice down with acts of injustice.
(d) Put the interests of his people before himself.

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

10. How does Polemarchus define justice?
(a) Being fair in all contexts.
(b) Allowing each man to live his life freely.
(c) Stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
(d) Doing good to one's friends and evil to one's enemies.

11. Toward the end of Book IV Socrates weaves an analogy between________________.
(a) The citizen and the king.
(b) The individual and the city.
(c) Heaven and hell.
(d) Father and son.

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

13. In Ion, Socrates is concerned primarily with which of the following?
(a) Ion's secret relationship with Agathon.
(b) Defining virtue by more than just examples of virtue.
(c) Distinguishing how we know things artistically from how we know things inspirationally.
(d) Proving that Ion is not as smart as he is.

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

15. How does Socrates plan to keep the soldiers of the republic from fighting?
(a) He reasons that if they make the most money, they will always be happy.
(b) He trusts that anyone who becomes a solider would put his state before his personal emotions.
(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.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. One large theme that permeates throughout Meno is:

3. Describe Meno's appearance and attitude when he meets Socrates.

4. What does Socrates tell Ion about a person who can recite poetry well?

5. How does Socrates rebut the definition of virtue offered by the poets?

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 894 words (approx. 3 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample