PHI 251

Parmenides suggests that there might be a problem with the notion of particular objects "partaking" of unified Forms, since each partaking seems to partake of only a part of the Form, and this means that the Form isn't unified, but instead divisible. Socrates defends himself with an analogy (that it turns out doesn't quite avoid the problem). What is the analogy that Socrates offers?

A Form is unified the way that a single day is a unity, present in many moments, but still the same day throughout all of those moments.

All three Milesian Philosophers seem to have at least one thing in common which structures their proposed insights into nature. Which of the following marks a striking similarity between Thales, Anaximander, and Anaxemines?

All three proposed a single basic stuff that serves as the fundamental principle of all things.

Which of the following best represents the Pythagorean take on "the soul?"

That it is immortal and subject to reincarnation

There is an interesting exchange between Socrates and Crito following Crito's point that the opinions of "the many" should be heeded, since, as their present situation proves, one may be killed as a result of those opinions. This exchange begins with a bit of cross examination between Socrates and Crito regarding the health of one's body. What conclusion does Socrates elicit, which answers to Crito's point about being killed by "the many?"

That it is not merely life, but a good life that is valuable, and that death is preferable to a bad life.

Socrates argues that his habits and actions leading up to his trial have been attempts to follow the will of the Gods as best he can, offering up as evidence for this a prophecy about him from the Oracle at Delphi. What did the Delphic Oracle say about Socrates?

That there are none who are wiser than Socrates

Socrates and Crito come to an agreement on how to respond to those who harm us that Socrates advises Crito to think carefully about, as it is not a very popular opinion. What do they agree is the proper response to those who harm us?

That we must never retaliate, for it is always wrong to harm another

After Parmenides's student, Zeno has finished reading his treatise, Socrates asks him a question. Which of the following best captures Socrates's question for Zeno?

He wants to know whether Zeno is basically offering another argument for the same claim that both he and Parmenides have made in the past, namely that there is no plurality and all is one.

What does Jonathan Barnes mean in his prologue to The Presocratic Philosophers when he says that the Presocratic Philosophers were "rational men?"

Their conclusions are the product of reasoned arguments for others to contemplate and debate rather than simply accept or reject.

Which of the following best describes Glaucon and Adeimantus' intent in telling the "Myth of Gyges" story at the beginning of Book II?

It illustrates how difficult it is to believe that Justice is better than Injustice when we take away all of the beneficial consequences for being just and the harmful consequences of being unjust.

At the beginning of Crito, Socrates says that he had a dream that fits with the news that Crito brings him. What is this news?

That his execution will take place soon.

Democritus adds something new to the pluralism of Empedocles and Anaxagoras by arguing that the fundamental material particles are "atomos" or "indivisible," and accordingly is regarded as the first to articulate an "atomistic" theory of the world. Crucial to his theory is the inclusion of one other principle in addition to these atoms. What is it?

Void

Thales was undoubtedly known for many things, but is perhaps most well known for his claim that the fundamental principle of all things is ________ .

Water

A dispute arises between Socrates and Thrasymachus over whether or not being a "ruler" is like being a "shepherd." Both seem to think that a ruler is like a shepherd, but they seem to understand the art of shepherding differently. Which of the following issue lies at the heart of their disagreement?

Whether the work of shepherding is essentially done for the benefit of the sheep or the benefit of the shepherd

Pythagoras was born on the isle of Samos, but it was in Croton where he established the Pythagorean cult. Locate Croton on the map below...

B

Both Parmenides and his student Zeno were from Elea, and this is why their distinct brand of "monism" is usually referred to as "Eleatic Monism." Identify where Elea is on the map below.

A.

Some say that Anaxemines seems to have taken a step backward from Anaximander by proposing that the fundamental principle of all things is _________.

Air

What did Democritus have to say about human perceptions, such as sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch?

All of the above

Following Cebes's expression of doubt that the soul lives on after the body dies, but instead may, perhaps, dissipate like smoke, Socrates offers an argument for the immortality of the soul that is sometimes called the Argument from Opposites. Which of the following best captures this argument?

All things come to be from their opposites, e.g. becoming taller comes from having first been shorter, and becoming warmer comes from having first been colder. The opposite of being alive is being dead, and just as one becomes dead from having previously been alive, once becomes alive from having previously been dead.

Socrates claims that a good person would not be motivated to rule in pursuit of money or honor. What, then, does he say IS the motivating factor for a good ruler?

Avoiding the punishment of being ruled by someone worse than themselves

Glaucon demands that Socrates offer up an attempt at an account of the Good, even though Socrates protests that he has no real knowledge of this, and that his opinion is likely to be less than altogether trustworthy. Nonetheless Socrates offers up a depiction of the Good through an analogy to the sun. Socrates points out that this analogy holds in at least two notable ways. Which of the following capture these two ways?

Both make knowledge of things possible and also nourish and bring all things into existence.

All three of the Sophists discussed in the text spent a significant amount of time in the city-state of Athens. Locate Athens on the map below.

C

Perhaps no other thinker amongst the Pre-Socratics manages to seem as simultaneously ridiculous and profound as Heraclitus does in some of the surviving fragments of his thought. He is sometimes portrayed as espousing the notion that everything is "fire," which would seemingly place him in good company with the Milesians. However, in reading through his fragments, it is clear that "fire" represents a more "abstract" concept for Heraclitus. Which of the following offers a better depiction of what Heraclitus seems to think the fundamental principle of reality is?

Change

Tell which of the Sophists the following statement is attributed to. "The ancient lawgivers invented God as a kind of overseer of the right and wrong actions of men, in order to make sure that nobody injured his neighbors privily through fear of vengeance at the hands of the Gods."

Critias

The Milesian Philosophers are so-called because they lived in Miletus. Locate Miletus on the map below...

D

Possibly the most difficult aspect of the divided line concerns distinguishing between dianoesis (frequently translated as "thinking") and episteme (usually translated as "knowledge). Which of the following best captures the distinction that Socrates tries to make between these two activities of the soul?

Dianoesis makes use of sensible particular images while episteme is a completely abstract and ultimately unified form of understanding.

Assuming that Euthyphro can deal with the first issue Socrates raises with his "piety is what is loved by the gods" definition, there is still another deeper issue. This is easily the most famous exchange in this dialogue - so much so that it is generally referred to as the "Euthyphro Dilemma." What is this dilemma that Socrates poses to Euthyphro? (hint, it begins at line 10a of the Stephanus pagination in the margins)

Do the gods love piety because it is pious, or is it pious because the love it?

How does Anaxagoras explain the way that the "seeds" he proposes give rise to the great and changing diversity of qualities we observe in "all Things?"

Each of the seeds contains a portion of all things, such that all things that will ever be are already present in each seed.

Which of the following best represents when the Milesian philosophers were alive?

Early to mid 6th century (500's) BC

The dialogue begins with Euthyphro asking Socrates what he is doing at the king archon's court (a special court dedicated to dealing with cases of alleged religious impiety). In the ensuing conversation we find out what business each of them has at the court. Why are Socrates and Euthyphro at the king archon's court?

Euthyphro is there to prosecute his own father for murder, and Socrates is there to defend himself against accusations that he corrupts the youth and invents false gods.

Socrates embarks on a peculiar little side conversation with Meno's slave, in which he tries to "teach" him a geometric principle (how to find the length of the side of a square that is double the area of another given square). This conversation is offered by Socrates as an answer by way of demonstration to a really nasty problem put forth by Meno, which is usually referred to as "the riddle of inquiry." Which of the following best captures this "riddle?"

Genuine inquiry seems impossible, since we either know something or we don't. If we know it, we can't search for it (since we already have it), and if we don't know it, we can't search for it (since we wouldn't recognize it even if we found it).

Xenophanes insists that contrary to the traditional Greek "pantheon" of many gods, there is only one god. Aside from this oneness, several other proposed characteristics of god are attributed to Xenophanes. Which of the following is NOT one of these?

God is omnibenevolent (all good).

Tell which of the Sophists the following statement is attributed to. "Reality is not the object of thought, and cannot be comprehended by it."

Gorgias

The young Socrates proposes a rough version of the theory of Forms as an alternative to the Eleatic position that "all is one." Parmenides, taking on a role we are used to seeing from the older Socrates in other dialogues, probes Socrates's position by asking for some clarification of what he means. He offers three groups of possible Forms, the first of which Socrates agrees with and says this is what he has in mind, the second of which Socrates says he's not sure about, and the third of which Socrates says he doesn't think count as forms. Which of the following are members of the third group of proposed "forms" that Socrates denies as genuine examples of the Forms?

Hair, Mud, and Dirt

With Heraclitus we see, for the first time thus far, an articulation of not just a "logos" or account/speech, but THE "Logos" (as when he says, "Listening not to me but to the Logos, it is wise to agree that all things are one.") as if to suggest that rational discourse is some sort of independent and unified thing that we might participate in, but exists apart from us. Which of the following is a reasonable paraphrasing of something else that Heraclitus says of "the Logos."

Humans seem to always find it incomprehensible.

Through Parmenides, Plato lodges one particular potential critique of his own theory of Forms that many scholars today believe to be a fairly incisive one. This argument is commonly referred to as the "Third Man Argument" despite the fact that it is articulated in the dialogue in terms of the Form of Largeness rather than the Form of Man (it is Aristotle who first articulates this argument in terms of a "third Man"). This argument begins with Socrates's agreement that like the particular large things that partake of it, the Form of Largeness is large. Where does it proceed from there?

If the Form of Largeness is large, just as large things are large, then there would have to be another Form of Largeness above the first Form that covers all the large things and the initial Form of Largeness. But then this second form of Largeness is presumably also large, so there would have to be another Form of Largeness over that as well, and so on ad infinitum.

In Apology, Socrates is defending himself against two distinct sets of charges. Which of the following answer choices best represents these charges?

Inventing false gods and corrupting the youth

Toward the end of the dialogue, Socrates seems to get Euthyphro to agree that piety is a kind of "justice." What kind of justice do they seem to agree that it is?

It's the type of justice concerned with caring for the gods, the way a slave cares for his master.

It seems like Socrates has a particular notion of Justice in mind throughout Books I & II of the Republic. Which of the following definitions best fits this notion.

Justice is the art of ruling such that everyone involved (including the ruler and those who are ruled) is benefited.

After noting that both are equally good guides to action, Socrates refers to a distinction between "knowledge" and "true opinion." Which of the following does Socrates say marks this distinction?

Knowledge is "tied down" while true opinion might be forgotten and lost.

Empedocles, along with all the pluralists, were responding directly to monists like Parmenides and Zeno to attempt an explanation of how the great diversity of things and change occur. In a striking anticipation of the attitude common in contemporary physics, Empedocles proposed fundamental material elements as well as fundamental forces. The material elements he proposed were the four natural elements, earth, water, air, and fire. What were the two fundamental forces?

Love and hate

Just after Socrates makes the case that virtue seems to be teachable, since it is a sort of knowledge, he presents a counter argument giving reasons for why it is not teachable. Which of the following is part of this argument?

Many of the most virtuous men of Athens, despite their wealth and good judgment, seem to have been unable to teach their sons to be virtuous.

The Pythagoreans make a marked departure from the Milesians, who all claimed that the fundamental governing principle of the cosmos was one material substance. Instead, they seem to shift their take on a unifying principle by turning toward "abstract" immaterial things. Which of the following best captures what the Pythagoreans took the fundamental governing principle of the cosmos to be?

Mathematical Ratio

After a first introduction, framing the dialogue as the recollection of the following events by Phaedo, we get a second introduction from Socrates. This introduction ends and the topic of the rest of the dialogue begins when Socrates suggests that any true philosopher should not fear death, but welcome it, as philosophy itself is a practicing for death. Which of the following is a reason that Socrates gives for this seemingly strange claim?

Philosophers disregard the pleasures of the body, instead focusing on those things that benefit the soul and in so doing have already begun to separate their bodies and souls. Philosophers disregard the bodily senses as an unreliable tool for knowledge, and in so doing, have already begun to separate their bodies and souls. Those things that a philosopher inquires into, such as Justice, Beauty, and Virtue, are grasped not by the bodily senses, but with the soul/intellect, and in this way, the philosopher's work is the activity of the soul by itself, and death will only further enable the soul's activity unencumbered by the body. All of the above

Tell which of the Sophists the following statement is attributed to. "Man is the measure of all things."

Protagoras

After speaking to the ways that rumors and false stories may have biased some jury members against him, Socrates proceeds to speak in the fashion he is accustomed to by directly engaging Meletus in a cross-examination. The first topic of his questioning concerns care for the youth of the city, and Socrates asks Meletus who harms the youth and who benefits them. After a bit of back and forth, what position does Meletus end up taking?

Socrates alone harms the youth, and everyone else benefits them

Which of the following is NOT an answer to the question "what is virtue" proposed by Meno?

Virtue is knowing the difference between what is beneficial and what is harmful.

The fact that Parmenides' poem describes and encounter with the goddess suggests that position laid out is put forward as a product of divine inspiration or revelation, but at the same time, there is an argument made here by the goddess. That argument rests upon a single premise which seems difficult to deny and from which everything else is inferred. What is this premise?

That which is, is, and that which is not, is not (and cannot be).

When Socrates admits that there are some difficulties with the Theory of Forms as he has currently (in the dialogue) worked it out, Parmenides notes that he hasn't even come to the "worst" difficulty yet - that the Forms seem to be unknowable to any human. This difficulty begins with Parmenides getting Socrates to agree that insofar as the Forms have "real" being that is independent of those particular concrete things that partake of them, no such real being exists in our world of particular concrete things. How does Parmenides get from this to the conclusion that the Forms must be unknowable to humans?

The Forms are knowable only through an ideal Knowledge, but we are particular concrete people and can only possess a lesser sort of knowledge that merely partakes of the ideal Form of Knowledge.

Following a discussion of the theory of recollection, Simmias and Cebes note that while this supports the notion that our souls existed before we were born, it doesn't necessarily mean that they will live on after we die. So, Socrates offers another argument for the immortality of the soul that is sometimes called the Argument from Affinity. Which of the following best captures this argument?

The body, and other things that can be destroyed are changing, made of composite parts, and perceivable by the senses. But things like the absolute form of Justice, or the Beautiful, or the Good, are eternal, unchanging, unified, and invisible. The soul is more like this second class of things, and so is likely to not be the sort of thing that can be destroyed.

After Euthyphro's first definition of piety gets picked apart by Socrates, we get another definition, namely that the pious is what is loved by the gods and the impious is what is hated by them. Socrates points out that something that Euthyphro previously said raised a problem with this definition. What is this problem?

The gods quarrel with one another, and love and hate different things, making some things both pious and impious at the same time.

When Xenophanes says things like "if oxen, horses, and lions had hands or could paint with their hands and fashion works as men do, horses would paint horse-like images of gods and oxen ox-like ones, and each would fashion bodies like their own," what is he trying to illustrate?

The human tendency to create gods in their own images blinds us to the true nature of god.

Ultimately, the decision regarding whether Socrates should escape or not seems to hinge on whether he would be harming anyone in doing so. Who does Socrates say his escaping would harm?

The laws of Athens

Parmenides' student, Zeno, seems to accept his teacher's view that change and plurality must be illusory. Specifically, Zeno offers as many as four paradoxes of motion. Which of the following is NOT one of these paradoxes of motion?

The paradox of the Millet seeds

At the end of the day, this is a dialogue about the concept of "piety," and like many of Plato's early dialogues, most of the conversation revolves around attempts to pin down a definition of the concept in question. Euthyphro claims to know what piety is, and offers many prospective definitions. What is the first definition he offers?

The pious is what he (Euthyphro) is doing, prosecuting the unjust no matter who they may be, and the impious is to fail to prosecute wrongdoers.

Crito offers up an argument for why Socrates should take the opportunity to escape. What is that argument?

The reputations of his friends will suffer as people will think that they had not done all they could to save him.

The very first counter argument that Socrates makes against Thrasymachus' definition of Justice as "the advantage of the stronger" (essentially a "might makes right" conception of justice) is that we seem to end up in a contradiction if a ruler mistakenly commands their subjects to do something that would actually be harmful to them (the ruler). Which of the following is Thrasymachus' answer to this seeming contradiction?

The ruler, in the strictest and most precise sense of the word, is not a ruler when they make a mistake like the one Socrates is describing.

Having been found guilty (by a relatively slim margin of 60 votes in a jury of 501 members), Socrates' trial shifts into a sentencing phase. Meletus et al. propose execution as the appropriate sentence. Which of the following is something that Socrates seems to seriously propose as appropriate?

The same treatment that Olympic victors get, namely free meals for life at the Prytaneum

After the Argument from Affinity, Simmias and Cebes still have some doubts, though they are hesitant to share them with Socrates because they don't wish to disturb someone who is about to die by suggesting that his soul will not, as he seems to believe, not outlive his body. After Socrates urges them to voice their concerns, each of them offers up an alternative conception of the relationship between the body and soul through the use of a different analogy. Which of the following pairs of analogies are offered by Simmias and Cebes?

The soul is to the body as a harmony is to a harp, and the soul is to the body as a weaver is to his coat/cloak.

Meno complains that Socrates has made him numb, and compares him to the "broad torpedo fish" [aka a stingray]. Which of the following is a reason Socrates brings up to show how he is, in fact, not like the torpedo fish in an important way.

The torpedo fish makes others numb but is not itself also numb, whereas Socrates is just as perplexed as Meno is.

In book VII, Socrates gives us another slightly different take on what he was talking about with the "Divided Line," this time employing the famous "Allegory of the Cave." What is it that Socrates says those who eventually make it out of the cave must do?

They must go back and try to help others find their way out of the cave, which will be difficult because the others will resist

No primary source writings by the Sophists have survived to this point, so our understanding of these figures come primarily from Plato, who positioned himself and Socrates in sharp opposition to them. Which of the following is taken as a common trait of all three of the sophists you read about?

They taught the art of rhetoric, or speaking well in public, to anyone who would pay their fee.

Anaxagoras took a step beyond Empedocles's pluralism by proposing more than four fundamental material components that make up all things, saying "one must believe that there are many things of all sorts in all composite products, and the seeds of all Things..." How many of these "seeds of all Things" did he propose?

an infinite quantity

All of Socrates's friends are disheartened by the strong challenge Simmias and Cebes have given to the prospect of an immortal soul. Immediately following this, as Socrates is playing with Phaedo's hair, he warns them all that they must not allow themselves to succumb to a dangerous pitfall of examining arguments in the way they have been. What is this danger?

that they will become mistrustful of arguments in general, like some people become mistrustful of people when they believe their trust has been misplaced

We get a new take on Plato's Theory of Forms by way of a discussion of a "Divided Line" that maps the various sorts of ways the soul perceives and the proper objects of those types of perception. While there are four sections in this "Divided Line" one major division breaks things up into two main categories of objects. Which of the following marks this major division?

the division between those things that are perceivable by the bodily senses and those things that are only perceivable by the soul/intellect

Book VI opens up with a discussion of the highest sort of knowledge that the rulers of the beautiful city must possess - knowledge of the Good. Immediately, a question regarding the nature of the Good pops up, and two main competing perspectives are identified. Which of the following are best captures these two perspectives on the nature of the Good?

the good as knowledge vs the good as pleasure

Parmenides' poem, "Peri phuseos" (or On Nature) talks of two paths. What are those two paths?

the path of Truth and the path of the opinions of mortals

Anaximander takes what seems to be a step forward from Thales by suggesting that the fundamental principle of all things is something he called apeiron. Which of the following is a common translation of this term?

the unlimited the indefinite the infinite all of the above - Correct