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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 argues that laws are___________.
(a) Affected by the flow of everyday life, and thus should not be formulated individually.
(b) Worthy formal pursuits.
(c) Rigid and static, unlike the people they control.
(d) Misguided because no one law holds true categorically.

2. To understand Ion's poetically inspired spirit, Socrates employs a metaphor of which of the following?
(a) A dying animal to explain how the sole individual is part of a significant collective.
(b) An eye attempting to see itself, explaining how our mental visions are limited by the bounds of our brain.
(c) A magnet to explain how a poet's inspiration moves from the muse to the audience.
(d) A newly born start to explain how small and insignificant our world is in the greater picture.

3. Ultimately, Socrates concludes that justice is______________.
(a) The power of the stronger.
(b) Completely unknowable and therefore obsolete.
(c) Completely unknowable, but nevertheless necessary.
(d) A proper organization, balancing the various faculties of the soul.

4. At whose house does the Symposium take place?
(a) Socrates.
(b) Alcidbides.
(c) Agathon.
(d) Phaedrus.

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

Short Answer Questions

1. According to Socrates' view of justice, a ruler should always:

2. Toward the end of Book IV Socrates weaves an analogy between________________.

3. By the end of Book IV Socrates has still not proved _______________.

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

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

Short Essay Questions

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

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

3. What is an art, according to Socrates?

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

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

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

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

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

9. What does Glaucon argue for?

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

(see the answer keys)

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