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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. What do Socrates' interlocutors object to in the beginning of Book V?

2. Socrates intends his imagined city to be taken as a symbolic model for__________.

3. One virtue that Socrates constantly refers to in his reasoning throughout Book III is_____________.

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

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

Short Essay Questions

1. What is justice, according to Socrates?

2. Whom does Adeimantus support? Why?

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

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

5. Explain Plato's theory of knowledge as recollection.

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

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

8. What would happen, according to Socrates, if a cobbler exercised the role of a leader?

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

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

Essay Topics

Write an essay for ONE of the following topics:

Essay Topic 1

Is Socrates a tragic hero? If yes, what are his hubrius and harmartia? If no, why not?

Essay Topic 2

Design your own Platonic dialogue centered around characters that already exist in the works. You may choose from any number of topics including justice, love, mortality/death, friendship, anger, truth, or a concept of your own devising. Make sure to use Socratic techniques such as aporia, cross-examination, and clarification of term in your dialogue.

Essay Topic 3

In the first book of The Republic, Socrates seems more confused about justice and what it actually means, but by Apology it seems that Socrates has a clearly picture of justice. Compare/contrast these two viewpoints. What has changed in Socrates' mind? What does this say about Plato's philosophy?

(see the answer keys)

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