20 Mar Short Answer questions

Heraclitus, Parmenides, the Pluralists, and the Atomists. Be able to explain how the Pluralists and the Atomists
attempted to resolve the problem resulting from the positions of Heraclitus and Parmenides.
2. What are the first principles for the atomists? How do the atomists account for change? How does the
atomists view relate to the views of Parmenides and Heraclitus? What is the place of randomness, purpose,
mechanism and necessity in Democrituss theory? In what way is Democrituss view reductionistic? In what
way is Democrituss view anti-realist?
3. Explain the Euthyphro dilemma. Then explain the three different answers to the Euthyphro dilemma, and
critically evaluate them.
4. Describe Socrates’s defense in the Apology. What does the character of Socrates in Plato’s Apology reveal to us
about the nature and value of philosophy?
5. Summarize Socrates’s argument in the Crito for obeying the law. Why, according to Socrates, is better to die
than violate the law?
6. From Socrates’s discussion is the Gorgias, explain the difference between oratory and philosophy. How does
Socrates argue that oratory is a kind of flattery?
7. In his discussion with Polus in the Gorgias, how does Socrates argued that orators have the least power, and
that it is better to suffer injustice than to do injustice?
8. In the Gorgias, how does Socrates argue to Polus that it is better to receive just punishment than to escape just
punishment?
9. In the Gorgias, how does Socrates refute Callicles’s conception of freedom, and its relation to happiness? How
does Socrates refute Callicles’s notion that pleasure is the good?
10. What is Thrasymachus’ conception of justice from Book 1 of the Republic, and how does Socrates refute it?
How does Socrates’s refute Thrasymachus’s three claims: (a) that unjust people are clever and good, (b) that
injustice is more powerful, and (c) that unjust people are happy?
11. From Book 2 of the Republic, explain why, according to Glaucon, one might think justice is not desirable for
its own sake. Explain the challenge he presents to Socrates, and the qualification Adeimantus adds.
12. From Book 3 of the Republic, describe Socrates’s philosophy of education. Explain why he thinks censorship
is justified.
13. From Book 4 of the Republic, lay out how Socrates determines what is justice in the [ideal] city. How does
Socrates argue for there being three parts of the soul? Carefully explain what each of the four cardinal virtues are
both in the ideal city and in the virtuous person.
14. From Book 5 of the Republic, how does the philosopher differ from the “lovers of sights and sounds”?
Explain Socrates’s account of the difference between knowledge and opinion.