Formatting: 12 pt type, double-spaced, no pictures of Socrates, standard footnoting
Length: 4 pages min.
Style: Argumentative
Due: Via email to justin@oursanctuary.org on October 2nd by midnight.
1. Why do you think Plato ends The Republic by invoking the myth of Er? What significance does it shed on the prior arguments?
2. Plato’s just city goes through three stages of development: trace these stages and explain why each is necessary. In which of these three stages does justice reside? Why?
3. What is the allegory of the cave meant to illustrate? Explain how it does so. What primary conclusion are we meant to draw from this extended analogy?
4. Is it good to be a good person? If so, why? If not, why not? Make use of Glaucon’s arguments in book II which support the idea that justice is merely instrumentally good, and that it is more profitable to individuals to appear to be good while doing wrong.
5. What is Plato’s assessment of democracy in the Republic? Is it valid? If not, why not? If so, why?
6. Thrasymachus declares that justice is nothing but “the advantage of the stronger.” What do you think he means? Make sure your interpretation of the statement explains how it serves as the challenge which The Republic sets out to meet.
7. ”Prove to us therefore, not only that justice is superior to injustice, but that, irrespective of whether gods or men know it or not, one is good and the other evil because of its inherent effects on its possessor." (p. 55, 367e) This initial challenge gets Socrates started. Lay out the essential argument by which Socrates meets this challenge. In a brief (no more than a page) section of the paper, describe and defend your own assessment of this argument.
8. “The just man is happy and the unjust wretched.” Do you agree with this statement? Can the inherent value of justice really be measured by the happiness it brings men?
9. Is it the nature of justice to cause harm (make things worse) or does true justice always bring good (make things better?) Questioning the lex talionis “eye for an eye” retributive concept of justice.
10. Does belief in the existence of a human soul affect the way you life your life? If so, how. If not, why not? Make use of Socrates’ arguments.
11. Are the social engineering projects discussed in the Republic realistic possibilities for human beings or is their proposal meant to teach us something else about the real possibilities for creating a just society?
12. Is the Unexamined Life not worth living? What is Socrates’ argument in the Apology and is it valid?
12. Make up your own topic, but check it with me first!
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