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

Multiple Choice Questions

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

2. What is Crito's relationship to Socrates?
(a) Crito is a wealthy disciple of Socrates.
(b) Crito is Socrates' cousin
(c) Crito is a Sophist, one of Socrates' enemies.
(d) Crito is a jail guard.

3. How does Socrates regard a democracy?
(a) Socrates thinks it is the best form of government in all cases.
(b) Socrates thinks democracy is the worst form of government.
(c) Socrates is only for a democracy if it has a bipartisan senate.
(d) Socrates thinks that the people should be able to choose who leads them.

4. Whom does Socrates think is the fourth (and least) happiest social class of man in the republic?
(a) The tyrant.
(b) The king.
(c) The democratic man.
(d) The aristocrat.

5. After the verdict, Socrates warns the Athenian jury that________.
(a) If they do not convict him, the public will think them weak.
(b) If they execute him, they will only be hurting themselves, as his role will be impossible to replace.
(c) They are acting unjustly by carrying out the entire trial in one day.
(d) If they exile him, he will spread slander about the Athenian justice system

6. What is an oligarchy?
(a) Rule by the military.
(b) Rule by the poor.
(c) Rule by the elite.
(d) Rule by the rich.

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

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

9. Socrates' republic would have a ruling _________.
(a) Timocracy.
(b) Aristocracy.
(c) Democracy.
(d) Monarchy.

10. Who said the following: "Whether in battle or in a court of law, or in any other place, he must do what his city and his country order him; or he must change their view of what is just"?
(a) One of Socrates' students.
(b) A prison guard.
(c) Phaedo's assistant.
(d) Socrates' son.

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

12. Which one of the following scenarios, according to Socrates, would most likely give rise to a tyrannical government?
(a) A hero completing a mythical quest which bestows immortality upon him.
(b) A merchant purchasing secret information about the government and using it to blackmail congress.
(c) A military lieutenant from within the general's ranks making a grab for power to control the timocracy.
(d) A man, claiming to save the poor from the rich in a democracy, rising to power and being immediately corrupted by it.

13. 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 hopes for perfect knowledge, but really claims to have no idea what will happen.
(c) He does not believe in an afterlife.
(d) He thinks death a bad thing, but looks forward to it as a means of getting out of prison.

14. Socrates explains that the common man sees the philosopher as useless because_________.
(a) He is blinded by ignorance, not seeing the intrinsic importance to their purpose.
(b) He is self-serving, and, therefore, despises those who judge him.
(c) He is concerned with the soul, not with books.
(d) He mistakes thoughfulness for idleness.

15. How does Socrates regard an oligarchy?
(a) Socrates thinks that class divisions are crucial to the success of an oligarchy.
(b) Socrates thinks that oligarchy is the best form of government in all cases.
(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.

Short Answer Questions

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

2. In Socrates' cross-examination of Meletus, how does he make Meletus contradict himself?

3. What challenges does Cebes raise for Socrates?

4. Who is Cebes?

5. The tyrannical man, according to Socrates, is characterized by___________.

(see the answer keys)

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