Ancient Greek Philosophy                Second Paper Assignment              Due: Monday, March 21

Basic assignment: Write a 4-6 page (typed, double-spaced) paper explaining and supporting your position on some issue raised by Plato in the Republic or in our discussion of it.

Some guidelines:

  1. Your paper should contain your thoughts and opinions, not just Plato’s or someone else’s.  Tell me what you think, not just what other people have said.
  2. At the same time, I do want you to address Plato’s thoughts: your topic should be reasonably related to something Plato said, and your paper should take some care to show that you have understood what Plato said.  Give references to the text to support your interpretation of Plato’s view.
  3. Be sure that the question or issue your paper is addressing is clear and well focused.
  4. Be sure that you have provided a clear statement of your position on that issue (or your answer to that question).
  1. In addition to explaining what you think, your paper should contain reasons why you take the position you do.  Your main job is to explain why a reasonable person should agree with the opinion or position you are expressing.
  2. Whatever your position is, there will be other points of view on the issue or topic you are discussing.  (This is philosophy!)  So, include in your paper at least one (more would be better) objection to your view and a reply to that objection.  How might someone who disagreed with you criticize your argument?  And how can you respond to that criticism?
  3. You are not required (or encouraged) to consult any other sources besides those already assigned for class reading.  If you do use any other sources, give them credit for whatever you take from them: list them in a bibliography at the end of your paper and give specific references for any ideas you have borrowed.  (Use the standard numbering system for your references to Plato’s texts.)

 

Some possible topics (please check with me if you want to write on a different topic):

  1. Socrates’ replies to Thrasymachus in Book One have often been regarded as particularly weak.  Explain why you agree or disagree with this assessment.
  2. The overall question of the Republic, it seems, is whether a just person is better off than an unjust person, leaving aside those benefits that come from reputation or the perceptions of others.  Socrates says, “Yes.”  Explain why he thinks so and why you agree or disagree.
  3. Socrates’ account of justice depends on an analogy between ‘justice in a city’ and ‘justice in a soul’.  How so?  Is this a good analogy?
  4.  Socrates claims that the human soul has three parts, and he supports this claim with an argument (436a-441c).  Explain and assess this argument.
  5. Plato argues that women can be guardians and rulers.  But there are traces of misogyny in some of his remarks about women.  Should we count Plato as the first philosophical feminist?
  6. Plato finds democracy to be unsatisfactory (both as a political system and as a psychic one).  Why?  Is he right?
  7. The allegory of the Cave is one of the most famous passages in all of Western philosophy.  Explain the meaning of the allegory and assess the theory of knowledge it expresses. Can we extract a valid idea from Plato’s image?
  8. Explain and assess Socrates’ reasons for banning most kinds of art and poetry from his ideal city.
  9. Plato has been accused of promoting a totalitarian political philosophy in the Republic.  Is this fair?
  10. Socrates says (505a) that “the form of the good is the greatest thing to learn about.”  How, according to Socrates, can we attain this knowledge? Is his view acceptable?