2. In what did philosophy consist for Socrates? (x) What does Reeve tell us about the "elenchus" (also known as Socratic dialectic or negative dialectic)? (x)

3. What sort of place was Plato's Academy? (xii-xiii)

4. Why did Plato return to Sicily in 368 and again in 362 B.C. (xiii)

1. What account (=definition) of justice does Cephalus offer? (331b-c) How does Socrates criticize it? (331c)

2. What account of justice does Polemarchus try? (332a-b)

3. How does Socrates force Polemarchus to revise his account of justice when the difference between believed and real friends is taken into consideration? (334c-335a)

4. According to Thrasymachus, what is "justice"? (338c) What do you think he means? (Be prepared to revise your initial judgment as you study further!) To what alleged political facts does T. refer? (338e-339a)

[On the surface, Thrasymachus seems to contradict himself. Compare his statement at 338c with his later claim that rulers are by nature unjust. His position, however, will appear consistent when we take "justice" at 338c to mean "justice on the part of the ruled or subordinate classes." In that case, however, what he says at 338c can't be his definition of justice, but only a result that follows logically from his real definition of justice and other ideas he has. For him justice seems to be understood (defined) as something like "that which serves the good of the other party." (See 343c3.)]

5. Thrasymachus says in effect that justice [found in the ruled classes] involves obedience to rulers and that it is to the rulers' advantage. What does he now admit that seems to lead him to a contradiction? (339-340b)

6. How does he then restate his thesis? (340d-341a) What analogy is he using?

7. What do crafts seek for what they rule? (341d) What does it mean to say that crafts are "perfect"? Does a craft seek to benefit itself? (341e-342d) What does it mean to say that crafts rule over their subject-matter? (342c) From what has been said, what follows about the ruler in the precise sense? (342e) How does this undermine Thrasymachus's position?

8. According to Thrasymachus, what is wrong with Socrates' use of the craft analogy? What is justice "really"? (343b-c) Who is happier--the just person, in this sense, or the unjust? (c-e) What sort of person is happiest of all, on his view? (344a-c)

9. Socrates distinguishes the two crafts that every type of craftsman performs. Which craft is common to all types of craftsman? What characterizes the craft peculiar to each type of craftsman? How is this distinction useful for Socrates' critique of Thrasymachus' view? (345e-346e)

10. What issue does Socrates say is "of greater importance"? (347e)

1. What three classes of goods does Glaucon distinguish? (357) In what class does Socrates say justice falls? (357e-58a) What is the common view? (358a)

2. According to what "they say," what is the origin of justice? (358e-359b) What is the point of the story of Gyges? (359b-360d) How does Glaucon make a rather persuasive case for the superiority of the unjust life? (360e-362c)

3. What does Adeimantus want Socrates to prove? (367b-e)

4. On what analogy does Socrates propose to proceed? (368d-369b)

5. Why does a city (polis=city-state, the basic social unit of ancient Greece) originate? (369b-d)

6. What general principle is introduced at 370? What two reasons support it? (370a, 370b)

7. What is included in what Glaucon calls a "city of pigs" (372d)? How does a luxurious city differ from the "city of pigs"? (372e-373d) Which city does Socrates describe as "with a fever"? (372e) Why do you think that Socrates is a bit less critical of the simpler city than Glaucon? (See 373e.)

8. Why does Socrates hold that the guardians should be a special class? (374b-d)

9. What kind of temperament must a [warrior] guardian have? What two elements must be present in a guardian? (375c-376c)

10. How does the problem of education (paideia) arise? (376c) What is "musical" education? (Note what it includes: 376e.)

1. What view of the gods and heroes would a Platonic republic allow? How does Plato criticize popular Greek poets? (377-383) How does he argue against stories in which the gods take on different physical shapes? (381a-e)

2. What does no one willingly accept, according to Socrates? (382a-b) What form of falsehood is sometimes useful? Will the gods ever need it? (382c-e)

3. Would Plato require his guardians to develop a wide repertoire of acting skills? (394e-396e)

4. What should the physical environment of young guardians be like? Why do they study music and poetry? (401a-402a)

5. What must the guardians be able to recognize when fully educated? (402c) What is the right love? (403a, 403c)

403d-408 contains remarks about the care of the body, by gymnastics and medicine. More than a few of them might be addressed to our own "civilization."

6. What are the characteristics of a good judge? (Dikastes means "one who is called on to judge right and wrong, to dispense justice.") (409b) How does a good judge's education differ from a good doctor's, according to Socrates?

7. What happens if one overindulges in music? in physical training? (411) If used properly, what do music and physical training accomplish? (411e-412a)

8. What division does Socrates now make in the guardians? What characteristics will the ruler group possess? (412c-e) To what sorts of pressures must these be immune? (413b-c)

9. What is the function of the allegory of the metals? (414d-415c) What is more important for Plato, the family or the state?

10. How will the guardians live? Why that way? (416-417b)

11. How does Socrates respond to the charge that he has not made the guardians happy? (420b-c)

12. In what two ways do craftspersons deteriorate? (421d-e) What is the point here?

13. Why does Socrates say that a non-Platonic city is not deserving of the title "city"? (422e-423a)

14. Would Plato endorse empire-building tendencies in his ideal-city? (423b) Such tendencies were very visible in Plato's own city, Athens, and later in Rome. Against what must the guardians be watchful? (424b) Can this be justified?

1. What four qualities will be found in a well-constructed polis? (427e)

2. At 428a Plato seems to be making an "algebraic" point. If you know that four things stand in a definite relation to one another, and you know three of them, you can figure out the fourth. Is his point sound?

3. Where is wisdom primarily found? (428b-e) courage (andreia)? (429c-e) How is (civic) courage defined at 429c?

4. Do the soldiers have knowledge, firm correct belief based on education, or mere correct opinion based on accidental causes? (430b) Does Plato (who speaks through his character Socrates) agree with the view, possibly attributable to the historical Socrates, that every moral virtue is a form of knowledge?

5. Of what is "moderation" a kind? (430e) The term, in Greek sophrosyne, in Latin translation temperantia, is often translated "temperance."

6. What is problematic about the phrase "self-control"? How does Socrates interpret this phrase? (430e-431a)

7. Plato's description of the way in which the masses will participate in the excellence of the rulers in the republic is disappointingly brief. (It is also "shockingly" undemocratic in tone, but we can ignore the tone when we evaluate its content.) Are there any as yet unanswered questions that you would like Plato to address about this?

8. In what class should moderation reside? What does he affirm moderation to be? (431e-432a)

9. How does Socrates "define" justice in the state? (433a-b, 434c) Is this meant to be a wholly clear and definitive solution? (433b3-4, 434d2)

10. On what ground does Socrates argue that the qualities found in cities must also be found in human beings? (435d-e)

11. What lesson does Socrates draw from the study of the example of the spinning top (436c-e)? Why is this principle (436e-437a) important for Plato's theory of the soul? (439b, d)

437d-438d develops the point that every mental state is defined in part by its correlated object, e.g., thirst is of drink, medical knowledge is of medical issues, such as health and disease.

12. How can one person be many? (439c-d) Is the spirited part (sometimes just "spirit") included in the appetitive part? What evidence is given? What grounds are there for distinguishing it from the rational part? (439e-441c)

13. When is a person wise? courageous? moderate? just? (441c-442d, 443c-444a)

14. What "ordinary cases" does Socrates discuss? (442e-443a) Why does he do this?

15. What is injustice in the soul? (444b) Why is injustice "unprofitable," i.e. why is injustice in itself bad for its possessor? (444b-445b)

1. What does Glaucon now ask Socrates to prove? (471e-472a)

2. What was the aim of the inquiry into justice? (472b-c) What point does Socrates make at 472d-e?

3. What claim does Socrates make which he then describes as "very paradoxical"? (473d-e)

4. How does Socrates distinguish philosopher or lover of wisdom from a lover of honor? from "one who is choosy about what he learns"? (475b-c) how is the philosopher like a lover of spectacles? (e) how unlike? (476b)

5. Write a paragraph discussing the connections between the following pairs of opposites: dreaming & being awake; knowledge & opinion; what is & what is intermediate between what is and what is not (476c-477e, 480a). How does ignorance differ from opinion? (478c) Where does Plato place the things opinion is "set over" (the objects of opinion)? (478d-479c) Does he include among these things popular conventions about "beauty and the others"? (479d)

6. Describe the guardians: What will be their attitude towards truth? (485c-d) With what pleasures will they be concerned? (d-e) Describe eight other qualities that will be important in a guardian/philosopher-king? (485e-486e)

7. Summarize [the point of] Socrates' first response to Adeimantus' argument that most philosophers are useless to society? (488a-489d)

8. What does Socrates say that a person of the philosophical type will do in a society which panders to "the madness of the majority"? (496c-e) Describe the difference between the way "philosophy" is treated "now" and the way it ought to be treated, according to Plato? (497e-498c)

500a-502c discusses the problem of convincing the multitude to accept philosopher-kings. Plato argues that it will very difficult but nevertheless possible to bring about the ideal state.

2. What do the majority think the good is? the more sophisticated? What, according to the latter, is this knowledge ultimately about? Why does the interlocutor say "And that's ridiculous"? (505b) What does everyone seek? (505d-e) What is the relevance of this discussion to the ruler guardians of the ideal Platonic state? (506a)

3. What point is being made at 507 b2-7? (This is one of the most central doctrines of Plato's philosophy.) Relate to the distinction between visibility and intelligibility. (507 b9-10)

4. What is it that links what can be seen and the power of sight? (507e-508a) What (visible) god is the cause of vision? (508a-b) (Incidentally, why do you think Plato regards this entity as a god?)

5. State the analogy which relates the Sun, visible things, and sight to the Good, understanding and intelligible things? (508b-c)

6. How is the soul like an eye? (508d) (This is one of the early sources for the notion of "seeing" something with the "mind's eye.")

7. What does the form of the good give to the things known? (508d)

8. What further claims does Socrates make about the Good? (509b-c)

9. Reconstruct "the divided line" as a chart. (509d-511e)

10. How are the two divisions of the intelligible distinguished? (510c-511d)

While the examples used come from the sphere of perception and mathematics, the divisions of the D.L. pertain to the stages in moral knowledge as well. At what level do you think Plato would place the definitions of justice, etc. offered in Book IV, around 443?

11. Relate the phases of the Cave Allegory to the four subdivisions of the Divided Line. (514-517e) Does any phase of the "prisoner's progress" in the C.A. correspond to something beyond the divisions of the D.L.?

12. State in your own words the point of 518 b5 - 519 b5. Does it follow that good and bad persons differ only about the means to the end? that it would be possible to convince Thrasymachus merely by laying out for him a formal argument in which the conclusion follows logically from the premises?