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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 claims that he learned about love from which of the following?
(a) Diotima.
(b) Plato.
(c) Alcibides.
(d) Meno.

2. What counter-example does Socrates employ as evidence that a state is flawed?
(a) Poor doctors exist where there are poor statesmen.
(b) Diplomats make more money than labors in problematic regions.
(c) "Rich" soldiers in other cities make poor soldiers and poor leaders.
(d) When innocent men are sentenced to death, a state is flawed.

3. Who gives the last formal speech at the symposium?
(a) Pausanias.
(b) Appolodorus.
(c) Agathon.
(d) Socrates.

4. How does Dimotia characterize love?
(a) Crude and deceitful, like the desire for immortality.
(b) Beautiful and pure, like virtue or reason.
(c) Curious and enigmatic, like the Gods.
(d) Grounded and rational, like a mathematical equation.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. When Ion admits to Socrates that he can only recite one poet's work well, Socrates is puzzled by which of the following?

2. To understand Ion's poetically inspired spirit, Socrates employs a metaphor of which of the following?

3. In Ion, Socrates is concerned primarily with which of the following?

4. Why is Socrates worried about literature which contains wayward characters?

5. What definition of virtue do Meno and Socrates borrow from "the poets"?

Short Essay Questions

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

2. What is Polemarchus main mistake in defining justice as "benefiting one's friends and harming one's enemies"?

3. Why aren't the soldiers in Socrates' republic well compensated?

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

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

6. What is an art, according to Socrates?

7. How does Socrates use metaphors to explain Ion's inspiration? How does this relate to the practice of art or philosophy?

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

9. Explain the irony of the following statement as it relates to Ion: "Plato is the supreme enemy of art and is also the supreme artist."

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

(see the answer keys)

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