(Pelletier, Winter 2002)

Before You Begin: Please sit in every-other seat, to the extent that this is possible. Please put your one-card or other picture ID somewhere I can see it. Please put your name and Student ID number on the exam…you need not answer any of the other questions. Also, put your signature next to your printed name on the exam booklet.

Note: You are not allowed any aids of any kind in this exam, including cell phones, pagers, CD or tape players, etc. If you need to go to the restroom, please bring your exam to the front.

Directions: This exam is worth 50% of your grade. Answer four questions; questions may be organized into groups so that you have to choose from different groups. All questions are equally weighted. You have three hours to answer these questions, so you should attempt to answer a question in 45 minutes. Of this time you should spend at least 5 minutes organizing your answer mentally (or on scratch paper) before writing. Put the question number beside your answer.

Note Also: As we discussed in class, you cannot write a final exam answer on the same topic as you turned in a term paper about. On each of the questions that overlap with term paper topics, I’ll notify that this is an off-limits question for you, if you wrote on that topic.

1. What are the various definitions of ‘piety’ that Euthyphro gives, and how does Socrates refute each? Do you agree with his refutations, and why?

2. At the beginning of the Meno, Meno asks Socrates "whether virtue is acquired by teaching or by practice, or if neither by teaching nor practice, then whether it comes to people by nature or maybe in some other way." What is Socrates’ overall answer to this question, and how (in outline) does he arrive at it? [Note: Some people wrote term papers on this general question]

3. One of the tacit assumptions for the immortality of the soul in Plato’s Phaedo (72-77) is:

One cannot simultaneously come to know for the first time the Form Equality

and at that same time also be able to recognize things as being or not being equal.

However, using this assumption, the argument proves much more than Plato is willing to admit, and so he has to restrict the applicability of this assumption. (a) What is it, and how is it proved, that Plato doesn’t like? (b) In what way does Plato want to restrict it? (c) What objection(s) can be made to this claim when it is restricted in this way?

4. How do Cephalus, Polemarchus, Thrasymachus define ‘justice’? What is Socrates’ response to each definition? Do you think any of these responses are good? Are any bad? Why?

5. After agreeing to talk about the ruler as opposed to the physically stronger, Socrates attempts to show that since the ruler is human, he is liable to error and therefore justice cannot be what is in the interest of the ruler. What is his argument for this, and how does Thrasymachus attempt to get around it? Is Thrasymachus successful? Why or why not?

6. Contrast the perfectly just state (and soul) with the perfectly unjust state (and soul). Why does Plato consider the despotic state to be perfectly unjust? What is Plato’s view of freedom? Why does he consider that the just Republic (an aristocracy) would be more free than a democracy?

7. In as much detail as you have time for, set out the discussion about "Justice" that occurs in Books II-IV of the Republic. Start with Glaucon’s and Adiemantus’ criteria that Socrates (Plato) must meet, and discuss how Socrates attempts to meet these criteria. How well do you think he succeeded?

8. What is the analogy between the state and an individual’s "soul"? Is Socrates’ use of ‘the State’ as an analogy to a person really a valid analogy, both in terms of the functions of the soul and state and in terms of excellence in a soul and in a state? What points of similarity and dissimilarity do you see between the two? And what does this say about Plato’s conclusions concerning justice?

9. In the "classical" theory of Forms, as described in the Republic, how does Plato view the overall structure of the Universe, both the physical and the non-physical? (It probably would help here to explain the "Divided Line" and the "Cave"). In this overall view, Plato correlates certain mental faculties with certain objects. What is this correlation? He also has an argument that is supposed to demonstrate the truth of this correlation (two arguments in fact: one for each of the two main mental faculties). What are these arguments? Are they valid? Why? [Note: Some people wrote term papers on this question].

10. Who are the "lovers of sights and sounds" in Republic Book V? How does Socrates finally distinguish them from "true philosophers"? How do the Forms play a role in this? What relation does the Form of the Good have to the other Forms? How does the image of the sun express this relation?

11. In Book X of the Republic (608c-612a), Plato gives a proof of the immortality of the soul based on the idea that everything has some peculiar evil or vicious condition that tends to destroy it. How, exactly, does Plato fill out the details of this proof. Do you find it convincing? If not, mention some thing(s) that seem questionable; if so, mention something that a disbeliever might say in response to Plato, and indicate what you think the disbeliever has overlooked. [Note: Some people wrote term papers on this question].

12. Socrates (Plato) raises (at least) two problems for Protagorean relativism in the Theaetetus: (a) a problem about future statements, and (b) a problem about expertise. Explain what Protagorean relativism is and how these arguments are seen by Socrates (Plato) as posing a problem for it. Do they really pose difficulties? How?

13. What is the "theory of mind" that is suggested by the "Block of Wax" analogy in the Theaetetus? That is, what are the "mental operations" that are allowed, and how does it try to give meaning to the claim that it is possible to make an error in identifying two different things that you know? Why do Theaetetus and Socrates give up the Block of Wax theory?

14. In considering the possibility that there are basic elements (none of which can be known) that make up complexes (which are known if their elements are known), Socrates claims that this theory can’t work. What is his argument here?

15. When Theaetetus and Socrates are considering the possibility of defining ‘knowledge’ as "true belief plus a logos", Socrates gives three possible definitions of logos and concludes that none of them are satisfactory. What is his reasoning, and is it convincing?

16. Discuss the following criticisms (found in Plato’s dialogue, Parmenides) of Plato’s "classical" theory of Forms

(a) The ‘man under a sail’ argument

(b) The ‘third man’ argument

(c) The ‘mastership’ objection

In your discussion, be sure to give an account of the "classical" theory so show clearly to what the objection applies. In each case, you might mention what sorts of steps you think Plato could have taken to avoid the objection.

17. Explain Parmenides’ argument to the conclusion that "discourse is not possible" and say what the "classical" theory of Forms gives as an analysis of the meaning of sentences. Does this give an adequate answer to Parmenides’ argument? Why? In Plato’s dialogue Sophist a different analysis is given. What is this analysis? Is it successful against Parmenides’ argument?