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

Multiple Choice Questions

1. How does Socrates regard an oligarchy?
(a) Socrates thinks that oligarchy is the best form of government in all cases.
(b) Socrates thinks that class divisions are crucial to the success of an oligarchy.
(c) Socrates claims that oligarchy is dangerous because it often leads to an impoverished public.
(d) Socrates asserts that an oligarchy is worse than a democracy.

2. What does Socrates think his dream means?
(a) Socrates will go to heaven after he dies.
(b) A foreshadowed vision of Crito coming to visit him.
(c) The boat which was supposed to arrive the same day, would not arrive until tomorrow, thereby delaying his execution.
(d) The kingdom of man is not so different from the animal kingdom.

3. Why would candidates for a philosopher-king class in the republic be tested?
(a) To show that they have no skeletons in their closets.
(b) To prove that they are stronger than their adversaries.
(c) To ensure that they can endure different types of intellectual life.
(d) To enjoy a life of task and reward.

4. What is Socrates' view on the nature of death, particularly his own?
(a) He thinks death is a good thing, though one should not look forward to it.
(b) He thinks death a bad thing, but looks forward to it as a means of getting out of prison.
(c) He does not believe in an afterlife.
(d) He hopes for perfect knowledge, but really claims to have no idea what will happen.

5. In Book VII Socrates weaves an analogy suggesting that the common man is like________.
(a) A willow flapping in the wind.
(b) A chicken in a coop, about to be slaughtered.
(c) A starving beast, desperate for food.
(d) A prisoner in a cave looking at shadow puppets and thinking it's real life.

6. Why is Phaedo important?
(a) Because he personally executed Socrates.
(b) Because he was present at Socrates execution and spoke with Socrates before he died.
(c) Because Socrates willed Phaedo everything that Socrates owned.
(d) Because he tried to break Socrates out of prison.

7. The evil of the soul, explained in Book X by Socrates, is ___________.
(a) Dishonesty.
(b) Treason.
(c) Injustice.
(d) Fire.

8. Wise souls, Socrates asserts, will always choose paths of_________.
(a) Pedagogy.
(b) Greed.
(c) Avarice.
(d) Virtue.

9. The tyrannical man, according to Socrates, is characterized by___________.
(a) A quickness to express wayward thoughts.
(b) Extreme paranoia.
(c) Spending money frivolously.
(d) A lack of temperance or restraint in any of his desires.

10. To Socrates, government is best analogized as being similar to the human _________.
(a) Brain.
(b) Soul.
(c) Heart.
(d) Limbs.

11. Socrates concludes Book X with a theory of _______________.
(a) Metaphysical phenomenology.
(b) Revolution for the government.
(c) Reverse psychology.
(d) Reincarnation of souls.

12. Socrates believes that a philosopher is best rewarded in death if ________.
(a) He becomes a god.
(b) His soul is laid to rest, while his body continues to survive.
(c) His soul continues to survive, while his body is laid to rest.
(d) He is brought back to life.

13. What assertion is made by Socrates when he responds to Adeimantus' point?
(a) True philosophers are more concerned with absolute truth to the opinion of the masses, and only Sophists are evil.
(b) Philosophy is neither an activity nor a profession, but a calling.
(c) Students become philosophers when they stop asking such questions.
(d) Philosophers make the best rulers.

14. What must the philosopher, according to Socrates in Book VI, employ in order to attain knowledge of "absolute good"?
(a) Judgment against "absolute evil."
(b) Public opinion of theoretical subjects.
(c) Guessing and hoping he gets lucky.
(d) Hypotheses about what is good in the world.

15. Which subject should be taught last in Socrates' curriculum?
(a) Logic.
(b) Ontology (study of being).
(c) Dialectic (the study of reasoning).
(d) Mathematics.

Short Answer Questions

1. With whom does Socrates discuss the education of soldiers and philosophers?

2. From Socrates' point of view, the philosopher is __________ than the tyrant.

3. According to Socrates in Book VII, to what should all philosophers aspire?

4. According to Socrates' opinion, what does the common man's simple mind cause him to mistake?

5. Philosophers, according to Socrates' analogy, are which of the following?

(see the answer keys)

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