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

Short Answer Questions

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

2. Who is the last person to leave the symposium?

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

4. In Ion, Socrates compares Ion to which of the following?

5. From which poet does Polemarchus derive his definition of justice?

Short Essay Questions

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

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

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

4. What does Glaucon argue for?

5. Whom does Adeimantus support? Why?

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

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

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

9. What is an art, according to Socrates?

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

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.

Essay Topic 2

How does Socrates plan for his city's rulers to not be corrupted by power? Do you think his plan is practical?

Essay Topic 3

According to Socrates position in Crito, how is the city the father of its citizen? How are his actions towards his family in Phaedo or his comments about his family in Apology consistent with or inconsistent with this position? Does this complicate the idea of Socrates as a hero?

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