The Second Test is scheduled for November 6, at class time. Draft Review for Test 2 (Fall 2009)
Contact: Dr. Garrett
Last Revised Date: November 4, 2009
Plato
See the study questions for chapters 4-6 on the website if you don't have the copies distributed in class. See the auxiliary materials in the Plato and Aristotle sections of the website. See the webpage on "The Fall" in the Bible section of the website.
Semantic, Metaphysical, Epistemological, Moral Questions
Semantic, Metaphysical, Epistemological, Moral Aspects of Theory of Forms
How Plato's divine craftsman creates the universe
Platonic realism
Nominalism
How are words related to Forms: the general claim, exceptions
How Forms differ from material objects
How we might come to know them
Examples v. definitions of the virtues—what is "Socrates" seeking?
Are Forms just abstractions from things observable around us? Explain.
What's special about The Good itself?The three parts of the soul distinguished in Republic iv?
What activities or feelings are associated with each? What desires?
The striking images Plato comes up with for the three-part soul
What is the cause of moral wickedness and social discord?How does Plato understand justice (virtue) in the soul and in the state?
Why is justice, after all, in everybody's interest?
What is required to get rid of social problems?
What sort of person is best equipped to rule?
What must he/she know? What characteristics must she have in advance? Is Plato a democrat? Explain your answer.
Does he think that those who have a lot of wealth and pursue more ought to have a bigger share in ruling than those who do not? Explain.
What part of soul rules the person or persons who make up the ruling class in (a) an aristocracy, (b) a timarchy, (c) an oligarchy, (d) a tyranny?The questions corresponding to the four types of causes Aristotle
The four causes of something made by a human being, e.g., a doorknob
The four causes of an organism, e.g., a human being
The proximate material cause of a wooden table, the remote material cause of same
The ultimate cause of changes in the universe
How Aristotelian formal causes differ from Platonic forms
Teleological view of X
How does the human soul relate to the human body?
Souls of plants, souls of animals—what functions are included?
How rational souls differ from sensitive souls.
How does theoretical reason differ from practical reason?
What's a good translation for eudaimonia?
Can we be passively eudaimon? Can we be morally bad while eudaimon?
Can we have lived a eudaimon life if we slept through most of it?
What are the two basic kinds of excellence (aretê)?
Distinguish sophia, technê, phronêsis?
Understand the meaning and importance of these essential aspects of moral virtue (or the process of becoming morally virtuous):Habituation (repeated practice), aiming at the "mean," avoiding excessive and deficient actions, causing us to feel the passions appropriately (i.e., when appropriate, where appropriate, to the appropriate extent, toward the appropriate persons/objects, etc.)Distinguish temperance from self-indulgence, and both of them from self-control and lack of self-control. What do the souls of self-controlled persons and souls of persons who lack self-control have in common? What type of person is morally the worst?How can inner harmony or moral virtue be attained? Explain the role of social environment, laws that threaten punishment, and actions up to the individual person in this process.
What character traits that we might like to reform are in fact most resistant to reform?What is the life of theoria like?
Why does Aristotle think it superior to the life of virtuous public service?To what extent does Aristotle share the prejudices of ancient Athenian "gentlemen"?
The Classical Hebrew Conception
How Gd creates in Genesis 1
What does Genesis 1 suggest about the nature of Gd's mind?
What apparent attributes of Gd in the early Biblical books are problematic for later theologians?
What is the via negativa for understanding the nature of Gd?
Positive attributes of Gd according to the Old and New Testaments read literally
What does the author of Genesis 1 probably mean by saying that humans are "made in God's image"? What alternate (skeptical) interpretation is sometimes suggested?
What are plausible interpretations of the "dust from the ground" and "dominion" passages in Genesis?
The "most crucial point" in the Biblical understanding of human nature?
What is a covenant?
What covenants does Gd make with humans? (There are two of them in Genesis and another in Exodus.)
What is wrong with humanity (over and over again)?
Why do human beings suffer? Who/what makes the connection between human misconduct and bad consequences?
How is restoration of right relationships between Gd and humanity possible (according to the Hebrew Bible)?
Essays (Tentative List)
One essay under each capital letters at 20 points each.
A. 1. In Plato's Republic, the Sophist Thrasymachus claims that the strong person who is able to rule unjustly will be happier than a just or virtuous person. How does Plato's theory of the soul and his linkage of virtue with the "political" arrangement within the soul enable him to refute this claim?
A. 2. When will the problems of society (the polis) finally be solved, according to Plato? What kind of person will constitute the ruling group in this society? How will he or she be produced, trained, educated? What sort of order will his soul be in? What things will he know? Describe the way of life of this ruling group. What kind of person is in the ruling group of a timarchy, an oligarchy, a tyranny? (What is the ruling element of his soul?)
B. 1. What, according to Aristotle, is moral virtue and why is it important for the good life? Explain how human beings become morally virtuous? How does Aristotle characterize the moral virtues in general, relating them to corresponding vices? How does Aristotle define eudaimonia, so as to show the importance he places on the virtues? Discuss two virtues and the vices that correspond to them. Are virtues the same as actions? as feelings? Do they affect actions or feelings? Does any intellectual virtue play an important role in excellent moral activity? (If so, which one? how?)
B. 2. Distinguish, as Aristotle does, between temperance (=moderation), being self-controlled but not strictly speaking temperate, lacking self-control, and being self-indulgent or intemperate. Which of these would Aristotle describe as "lying in a mean" and which would he describe as an extreme, on the side of excess. Which of the four conditions would he describe as morally excellent and not needing improvement, blameworthy but not vicious, praiseworthy but subject to improvement, resistant to reform. He thinks the threat of punishment is needed to keep which type of person from violating the most basic social guidelines.
C. What is the main explanation in the Hebrew Bible as to why human beings suffer? What is meant by covenant and with whom are the key human figures or groups in the Hebrew bible related by covenant? What does the via negativa say about the nature of this special being? What positive qualities of this being are stressed by both "testaments" to use the Christian term? What descriptions of this being in Genesis and other books of the Hebrew Bible seem controversial to later theologians? What is the most important characteristic of human beings in the Hebrew Bible? How does that play out in what is the most characteristic dynamic of the stories in the Hebrew Bible? In the context of the Hebrew Bible, what is the basis for hope that we can get beyond inhumanity, oppression, and injustice?