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This test consists of 5 multiple choice questions, 5 short answer questions, and 10 short essay questions.

Multiple Choice Questions

1. Who is the character who narrates Symposium?
(a) Socrates.
(b) Agathon.
(c) Appolodorus.
(d) Alcibides.

2. How does Socrates rebut the definition of virtue offered by the poets?
(a) By proving to Meno that there are many commonly held virtues.
(b) By giving Meno a solid definition of virtue.
(c) By instructing Meno that it is impossible to have an abstract entity which moves other things but does not move itself.
(d) By showing Meno that all men desire good things, but that not all men are virtuous.

3. What analogies does Socrates employ to refute Thrasymachus' position on justice?
(a) He compares democracy to dictatorship and aristocracy.
(b) He compares the skill of a leader to the respective skills of a doctor, house-builder, and sailor.
(c) He compares a money-maker to a philosopher and a clergyman.
(d) He compares justice to food, both nourishing the soul.

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

5. Where is courage found in Socrates' republic?
(a) In the soldiers who fight for it.
(b) In the lawyers and judges who fight injustice.
(c) In the academics who strive for truth.
(d) In the labors who toil in the sun.

Short Answer Questions

1. What are the soldiers of the republic explicitly forbidden to do, according to Socrates?

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

3. According to Socrates, the goal of his ideal city is__________________.

4. One large theme that permeates throughout Meno is:

5. In the beginning of Book IV, Adeimantus ask Socrates__________________.

Short Essay Questions

1. What would happen, according to Socrates, if a cobbler exercised the role of a leader?

2. What is Socrates' plan for the familial arrangement of the republic?

3. What does Diotima teach Socrates about love? How does this compare to Aristophanes' view?

4. Why is Meno's definition of virtue unsatisfactory for Socrates?

5. What is the purpose of Alcibiades late-night intrusion into the Symposium? What does he talk about?

6. What is justice, according to Socrates?

7. Does Thrasymachus like Socrates? Why or why not?

8. Whom does Socrates think is to be chosen to rule the city and why?

9. What is Socrates ultimate conclusion about the function of justice?

10. How does Socrates convince his interlocutors that a woman can do any job that a man can?

(see the answer keys)

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