Deck 6: Socrates: to Know Oneself

Question 1

According to the testimony of Alcibiades,

A) Socrates was often drunk, but acted courageously nonetheless.
B) Socrates once stood outside all day and all night thinking.
C) the arguments of Socrates about pack asses and blacksmiths and tanners are simply laughable.
D) Socrates was wise in that he bundled up well in the freezing cold.

Answer 1

Socrates once stood outside all day and all night thinking.

Question 2

In discussions with others, Socrates

A) held that victory would go to the best speaker.
B) used the arts of rhetoric as taught by the Sophists.
C) asked questions, but would answer none.
D) was happy to be refuted.

Answer 2

was happy to be refuted.

Question 3

In his conversations, Socrates

A) often professed ignorance of the subject being discussed.
B) tried to teach others the truth as he saw it.
C) confessed that if an opinion seemed true to you, then that settled the matter-for you.
D) tried not to antagonize people.

Answer 3

often professed ignorance of the subject being discussed.

Question 4

One of Socrates' settled convictions is that

A) it is useless to search for the truth; that is for the gods alone to know.
B) someone who knows what justice is will be just.
C) when a person does evil, it is because their will is corrupt.
D) the most important thing is to take care of your family.

Question 5

Socrates is unlike the Sophists in that

A) he took very little pay for his teaching, and as a result remained poor, while they grew rich.
B) he was interested in the question of human excellence.
C) the youth of Athens sought out his company.
D) he thought winning was not the main thing.

Question 6

Alcibiades says of Socrates that "there's no human being . . . who can match him." Give a brief description of Socrates that might justify this judgment.

Question 7

What kind of person must you be to benefit from a conversation with Socrates?

Question 8

Give two reasons for thinking of Socrates as a Sophist, and two for thinking he is not a Sophist.

Question 9

Explain the connection between (a) Socrates' practice of asking questions, (b) his characterization of himself as a midwife, and
(c) his concern for the truth.

Question 10

What does it mean that human excellence is knowledge?

Question 11

Contrast, in as many ways as you can, Socrates with the Sophists.

Question 12

Heraclitus says that "though the logos is common to all, the many live as though their thought were private to themselves." What might Socrates have thought about this? And how might it be connected with his questioning?

Question 13

In teaching these dialogues, I try to stay close to the text, while engaging the students in questions and answers. There is a lot in them, and students need help seeing what some of it means. It doesn't seem appropriate to lecture on Socrates.

Question 14

I give students outlines of both Euthyphro and Apology to help them see the structure of each.

Question 15

Euthyphro meets Socrates before the court because

A) he is being prosecuted for the murder of his father.
B) he is prosecuting his father for murder.
C) he has charged Socrates with impiety.
D) his reputation as an expert on piety has been challenged, and he is in court to defend it.

Question 16

Socrates describes Meletus as

A) an older man who is arrogant and meddlesome.
B) someone well known to himself.
C) a person who knows what is most important: Caring that young people be well brought up.
D) someone who couldn't be very wise, since he is bringing Socrates to court.

Question 17

The main thing Socrates wants Euthyphro to teach him is

A) why it is just to prosecute your father for murder.
B) why the gods quarrel.
C) what makes something pious.
D) the form of justice.

Question 18

Examination of Euthyphro's second proposal, that the pious is what the gods love, reveals

A) that Euthyphro's stories about the gods lead him, together with this definition, into contradiction.
B) that there are gods who don't agree.
C) that we don't know what the gods love.
D) that it only tells us how the gods regard the pious, not what it is.

Question 19

The problem with defining piety as what all the gods love is that

A) they don't all love the same things.
B) it gives only an external characteristic of piety.
C) love can mean many things.
D) there is only one god, so it cannot be pious to make reference to many.

Question 20

Those Socrates identifies as the earlier accusers

A) are the ones who complained about him to the Oracle at Delphi.
B) he later identifies as Meletus, Anytus, and Lycon.
C) have charged him in court with corrupting the youth.
D) will be the most difficult to defend himself against.

Question 21

The oracle at Delphi told Socrates' friend that

A) Socrates was the wisest man alive.
B) Socrates should spend his life questioning the Athenians about virtue.
C) no one was wiser than Socrates.
D) only the god was wise.

Question 22

One thing Socrates does not say during his defense speech at the trial is that

A) life is the greatest good.
B) a good man cannot be harmed.
C) it is wicked and shameful to do wrong.
D) it is not difficult to avoid death.

Question 23

The reason Socrates concludes that death is not an evil is that

A) whatever the many believe is probably wrong.
B) his voice did not hinder him in anything he did that day.
C) it is either a dreamless sleep or conversation with those that died before.
D) it is not wise to fear something when you do not know whether it is bad.

Question 24

Socrates refuses Crito's offer of escape from prison because

A) he is already seventy years old and would die soon anyway.
B) it would be dangerous for his family if he tried to escape.
C) he doesn't want to be a burden on those who would have to take him in after the escape.
D) in escaping he would do injury to the laws of Athens.

Question 25

Socrates tells Euthyphro that he is searching for the "form" of piety. What does he mean by that?

Question 26

When Euthyphro offers his second try at a definition of piety, "What is dear to the gods," Socrates exclaims, "Splendid Euthyphro!" Why?

Question 27

How does Socrates show Euthyphro that there is something wrong with the definition of piety as "what is dear to the gods" (Euthyphro's second attempt)?

Question 28

What is Socrates' objection to Euthyphro's claim that what all the gods love is what is pious-his third try at an answer?

Question 29

Supposing that piety is part of justice, what part of justice is it? And how is that part clarified in the dialogue?

Question 30

If piety is "a sort of trading skill between gods and men," it seems to follow that what we do for the gods benefits them in some way. How does this consideration lead to a circle in the argument about piety?

Question 31

Socrates distinguishes his earlier accusers from the later accusers. Identify each. Which does he consider harder to defend against? Why? And what are their accusations?

Question 32

How does Socrates try to defend himself against the accusations of the earlier accusers?

Question 33

What does Socrates do in response to the Oracle's claim that there is no one wiser than he? And why?

Question 34

What kind of wisdom does Socrates claim to have? What kind does he lack? Describe each.

Question 35

Socrates asks Meletus who improves the young if he, Socrates, is their corrupter. What is Meletus' answer? And what is Socrates' critique of this answer?

Question 36

Socrates asks Meletus whether he (Socrates) corrupts the youth intentionally or inadvertently. What sort of bind does this put Meletus in?

Question 37

Socrates says, "I have never been anyone's teacher." Why does he feel the need to say this? And what does he mean by it?

Question 38

Why would Socrates refuse an offer to spare his life if only he would cease practicing philosophy?

Question 39

Why does Socrates, at his trial, refuse to use the traditional "appeal to pity," bringing before the jury his weeping wife and children?

Question 40

What is it that makes Socrates say, after the verdict and the sentencing, that he thinks there is "good hope that death is a blessing"?

Question 41

Why does Socrates think one should never do wrong?

Question 42

What is the reasoning that convinces Socrates that it would be wrong to escape from prison, as Crito urges him to?

Question 43

Write a dialogue among Heraclitus (H), Amplicus (A, a fictional, but typical, Sophist), and Socrates (S) about whether or not we can know the truth of things.

Question 44

The Sophists claimed to be wise. Socrates acknowledged that he, too, seemed to possess a certain kind of wisdom. In as many ways as you can, using numbered paragraphs (one for each major point), compare and contrast Socrates' wisdom with that of the Sophists. (Hints: You might think about arete, the measure, weak and strong arguments, true-for-me, the truth, ignorance, winning, teaching, believing in the gods, justice, self-preservation. . . .)

Question 45

In the Apology Socrates tells the jurors that their killing him will harm them more than it will harm him. He also says that "a good man cannot be harmed either in life or in death." Explain these striking remarks. How do these attitudes play a role in his refusal to escape from prison?

Question 46

Students often think the Forms must be merely ideas or concepts in an individual's mind. To counter that tendency, you might point out that when Socrates thought of a square, there was indeed an idea of a square in his mind, but that he wasn't thinking about that idea: (a) he used that idea to pick out what he was thinking about; (b) it makes no sense to think of ideas as square; and (c) ideas cannot be doubled in size, but squares can.

Question 47

Students find it hard to take seriously the thought that things in the visible world are not the most real of things. To give Plato a run for his money, emphasize that this is a mere prejudice on their part, and that we have to go where the best argument leads.

Question 48

Students may find it hard to grasp that the Divided Line and the Myth of the Cave tell basically the same story. Show them the parallels in detail. The cave drawing may help.

Question 49

Students often find obscure the idea of dialectic in the higher reaches of the Divided Line. I use the argument about morality as an example to show how dialectical reasoning can demonstrate that one Form (Morality) participates in another (the Good).