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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. To which other creative art does Socrates propose censorship?
(a) Mathematics.
(b) Music.
(c) History.
(d) Dance.

2. Who is the surprise visitor to the symposium, and why does he come?
(a) Aristotle arrives late because he traveled farther than the others.
(b) Appolodorus comes because he is angry he wasn't invited.
(c) There is no surprise visitor.
(d) Alcibiades comes because he is drunk and wants to seduce Socrates.

3. In Book V, what is the philosopher concerned with, according to Socrates?
(a) Justice, and only justice.
(b) Beautiful things.
(c) The afterlife.
(d) Absolute being.

4. In his first argument, Glaucon asserts that is better to __________.
(a) Be unjust than appear unjust.
(b) Appear just than actually be just.
(c) Appear unjust than actually be just.
(d) Be just than appear just.

5. Who is the last person to leave the symposium?
(a) Appolodorus.
(b) Diotima.
(c) Aristophenes.
(d) Socrates.

Short Answer Questions

1. What poet is cited by Cephalus to explain the paradox of old age?

2. In Socrates' ideal nation, literature which depicts the afterlife should depict it as___________.

3. When first asked by Socrates to define virtue, Meno responds with which of the following?

4. What is a symposium?

5. Who said the following: "may not the art of which neither teachers nor disciples exist be assumed to be incapable of being taught?"

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. How is Meno an example of indirect teaching? How does Plato corroborate his own theory of learning as recollection?

4. What is the best way, according to Socrates, that people not be given false impressions about the gods?

5. What is the purpose of Aristophanes' myth about men and women once being unified and then split apart? How does he end his story?

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

7. How does Socrates distinguish knowledge known through art from knowledge known through inspiration?

8. Why does Socrates want to censor literature in his republic?

9. What does Cephalus tell Socrates about the key to enjoying old age?

10. What is Socrates' view on poets and soothsayers?

(see the answer keys)

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