View a FREE sample

This test consists of 5 short answer questions, 10 short essay questions, and 1 (of 3) essay topics.

Short Answer Questions

1. How does Dimotia characterize love?

2. Why does Socrates discuss Asclepius' philosophy?

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

4. When Socrates meets Ion, Ion has just returned from which of the following?

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is the crucial difference, according to Socrates, between the common man and the philosopher?

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

3. What is justice, according to Socrates?

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

In Apology Socrates claims quite famously that: "the unexamined life is not worth living." Discuss the ramifications of the statement, and prove its validity in your own words. How might a Sophist try to disprove this assertion? How might Socrates answer these rebuttals?

Essay Topic 2

Many of the dialogues in The Republic take place between Socrates and Glaucon. Whom do you think Plato supports more? Give evidence for your reasoning.

Essay Topic 3

According to Socrates in Book IV of The Republic, justice is a proper organization of the faculties of the soul such that each part is fulfilling its own proper role and not usurping the functions of others. Do you agree or disagree with this definition? Do you think Socrates equivocates this definition in other dialogues? Give examples either modern or ancient where you can test Socrates view of justice.

(see the answer keys)

This section contains 1,191 words (approx. 4 pages at 300 words per page) View a FREE sample