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

2. What definition of virtue do Meno and Socrates borrow from "the poets"?
(a) Virtue is the desire and power to obtain good things.
(b) Virtue is different for every person.
(c) Virtue is the unmoved mover of all things.
(d) Virtue, like other abstract notions, resists our best attempts to define it.

3. According to Socrates, where would the republic's leaders live?
(a) In a palace in the country's largest city.
(b) Among the citizens.
(c) In the Academy.
(d) Separately from the citizens.

4. Who is Eryximachus?
(a) A doctor who argues that love is like a medicine curing life's ailments.
(b) A poet who argues that men and woman were once fused beings.
(c) A philosopher who attacks Pausanias' postion.
(d) The last speaker and surprise guest at the symposium.

5. What does Cephalus say to Socrates about old age?
(a) Wisdom is not worth death.
(b) Most people think it is a curse, but one can enjoy freedom from youth's passions.
(c) Old age is the same as youth, it just depends on one's perspective.
(d) Aging takes the life out of one's body.

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Socrates, woman can____________.

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

3. How are leaders chosen in Socrates' ideal republic?

4. Which demographic of the Athenian population does Socrates single out for discussion?

5. How does Socrates refute Polemarchus' definition of justice?

Short Essay Questions

1. Does Socrates believe that his theoretical republic is a realistic political plan for a city?

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

3. How is the story of the Symposium framed? How does this relate to the cultural values of the Greeks?

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

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

6. How does Socrates plan to prevent the rulers from becoming tyrants?

7. What does Glaucon argue for?

8. Is The Republic only interested in individual justice?

9. How should soldiers, according to Socrates, be trained in the ideal republic?

10. Where, according to Socrates, does virtue reside? How does virtue relate to the dichotomy of opinion and knowledge?

(see the answer keys)

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