Deck 5: The Philosopher-King: Plato

Question 1

Platonic Forms are known through experience.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Socrates was executed.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Plato offered a dualistic solution to the problem of knowledge.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

H.L. Mencken asked how any man could be a democrat who was sincerely a democrat.

Question 5

Plato could avoid the challenge of sophistic skepticism.

Question 6

You must be a U.S. citizen to be the President of the United States.

Question 7

Sparta surrendered to Athens in 404 B.C.E.

Question 8

Plato founded the Garden.

Question 9

Plato believed that he could give the best lecture on an ideal society.

Question 10

You must be a certain age to be the President of the United States.

Question 11

Platon  means "wide" in Greek.

Question 12

Plato held that a Heraclitean world would be one of stasis.

Question 13

The Thirty ruled Athens for a short time.

Question 14

Pericles was an architect who specialized in houses.

Question 15

Plato believed that a corrupt state produces corrupt citizens.

Question 16

Solon was a lawgiver.

Question 17

"Plato" is the nickname of Aristotle.

Question 18

The presidency of the United States has only four requirements.

Question 19

Plato's Republic is perhaps the most-read work of Western philosophy.

Question 20

A Heraclitean world would be devoid of the possibility of certainty, according to Plato.

Question 21

The lowest level of truth for Plato is

A) Reasoning
B) Perception
C) Imagination
D) Understanding

Question 22

Plato believed that the Sophists could discover truth.

Question 23

For Plato, scientific knowledge of particulars

A) was easy to come by
B) was provided by the Forms
C) was impossible
D) was provided by experience

Question 24

The Greek word eidos is sometimes translated as "idea."

Question 25

What is not part of the intelligible world, but part of the visible world?

A) The Good
B) Reality
C) Truth
D) The Sun

Question 26

Plato believed that knowledge and opinion were the same.

Question 27

Plato's views on the Forms are only of historical interest to us.

Question 28

Plato did not believe that Forms actually existed.

Question 29

An example of a higher metaphysical Form is

A) the Good
B) Form Human
C) Mother Teresa
D) A picture of Mother Teresa

Question 30

Plato believed that truths about mathematics exist whether we know them or not.

Question 31

How many metaphysical levels of reality were there for Plato?

A) 2
B) 3
C) 4
D) 5

Question 32

Who developed the example of the Divided Line?

A) Heraclitus
B) Plato
C) Aristotle
D) Cicero

Question 33

What Plato meant by Forms is clear.

Question 34

In what Book of the Republic does Plato's Allegory of the Cave occur?

A) 4
B) 7
C) 11
D) 9

Question 35

What did Plato compare the absolute Form of the Good to?

A) The Moon
B) Mind
C) The Sun
D) A Philosopher King

Question 36

The Forms do not include logical relations.

Question 37

Who held that the parable of the Cave was unforgettable?

A) Plato
B) Jaspers
C) Aristotle
D) Marx

Question 38

Plato wanted the theory of the Forms to provide an explanation of how knowledge is possible.

Question 39

Plato was a skeptic.

Question 40

How did Plato respond to relativism?

A) He wanted to deny it
B) He endorsed it
C) He wanted to refute it
D) He wanted to prove it

Question 41

How many categories of needs does a just state meet?

A) 3
B) 5
C) 7
D) 9

Question 42

Outline two differing ways of understanding Plato's theory of the Forms. Which do you think is most persuasive (a) as an account of what Plato wrote and (b) as an approach to epistemology. Explain your answer.

Question 43

Outline Plato's view of reality. Do you agree with his reasoning for this or not? Explain your answer.

Question 44

How many people have power in a tyranny?

A) 1
B) 3
C) 5
D) 7

Question 45

What did Plato think was the "excellence of function for the whole"?

A) Justice
B) Health
C) Virtue
D) Security

Question 46

Who held that "the greatest griefs are those we cause ourselves"?

A) Plato
B) Homer
C) Socrates
D) Sophocles

Question 47

What type of knowledge gains no hold on the mind, for Plato?

A) False knowledge
B) That acquired under compulsion
C) That acquired unjustly
D) Scientific knowledge

Question 48

The moral position that right and wrong can be understood in terms of their effect on something's purpose is

A) A functionalist theory of morality
B) A realist theory of morality
C) An instrumental theory of morality
D) A deontological theory of morality

Question 49

Do you believe hat "ignorance is bliss"? Why or why not? Would Plato agree? Do you think that knowledge is always valuable? Argue for your answer and illustrate it through examples.

Question 50

What is discussed in the first book of the Republic ?

A) Art alone
B) Justice
C) Poetry
D) Knowledge alone

Question 51

According to Plato, the levels of reality correspond to how many types of people?

A) 3
B) 5
C) 7
D) 4

Question 52

Outline Plato's Allegory of the Cave. What do you think is the main lesson that he wished to communicate through this? Do you agree with Plato's views here? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

Question 53

Who coined the term "utopia"?

A) Plato
B) More
C) Cicero
D) Aquinas

Question 54

What type of morality does Plato argue for?

A) Instrumental
B) Functionalist
C) Egoist
D) Relativist

Question 55

For Plato, a democratic state is one of constant

A) security
B) justice
C) becoming
D) poverty

Question 56

What did Plato compare the soul to in the Phaedrus ?

A) A chariot without a horse
B) A chariot pulled by two horses
C) The sun
D) The sun obscured by clouds

Question 57

Philosopher-kings serve as

A) Guardians
B) Workers
C) Warriors
D) Merchants

Question 58

Do you agree with Plato that there can be excessive freedom? Why or why not? Explain your answer.

Question 59

For Plato, virtue is

A) An excellence of function
B) A function of striving
C) Impossible to achieve
D) Easy to achieve

Question 60

What did Plato think should rule the soul?

A) Love
B) Justice
C) Desire
D) Reason

Question 61

In what way is Plato's Republic a meritocracy? Does this make it a more or less appealing way of organizing society in your view?

Question 62

What are the differences for Plato between knowledge and opinion? How might Plato's views here influence his view of the value of democracy?

Question 63

Do you agree with Plato's assessment of the epistemological value of imagination or not? What implications, if any, does your response have for the contemporary debate over whether or not the arts should be (at least in part) publicly funded?