Deck 8: Plato: Knowing the Real and the Good

Question 1

A statement, according to Aristotle, is

A) like a prayer.
B) composed of three or more terms.
C) like knowledge, always true.
D) either true or false.

Answer 1

either true or false.

Question 2

The first principles of a science are

A) the clearest and most certain things we know.
B) arrived at by demonstration.
C) proved to be true through syllogistic reasoning.
D) unknowable.

Answer 2

the clearest and most certain things we know.

Question 3

In Aristotle's account of the four causes,

A) the efficient cause of the world is God.
B) a final cause is pure potentiality.
C) the formal cause is the three-dimensional shape (or form) that a material object has.
D) the material cause is the one that explains the individuality of things.

Answer 3

the material cause is the one that explains the individuality of things.

Question 4

Pleasure, for Aristotle, is

A) never to be sought as an end.
B) the end that humans are naturally motivated by.
C) unsuitable as the principal end for rational creatures.
D) the reason we should be virtuous.

Question 5

Virtue, Aristotle says, is defined by a mean relative to us. He means that

A) facts about an individual and her circumstances are relevant to what should be done.
B) we all have different values.
C) if you think x is the right thing to do, who's to say you are wrong?
D) there are no virtues common to all.

Question 6

Suppose I do something wrong, but offer an excuse. Which of these excuses, if true, would be acceptable, according to Aristotle?

A) I didn't know that was wrong.
B) My parents mistreated me when I was young.
C) I did it to Jones because Jones did it to me.
D) I was forced to do it.

Question 7

God, Aristotle says,

A) cares for his creatures as a father cares for his child.
B) functions as the final cause for the world.
C) knows the number of hairs on each person's head.
D) is a moved unmover.

Question 8

Soul, according to Aristotle, is

A) the unique possession of rational creatures such as humans.
B) a primary substance.
C) common to all nature-facts.
D) the form of a living body.

Question 9

Aristotle defines happiness (eudaemonia) as

A) harmony in the soul.
B) a feeling of excellence (arete) pervading the soul.
C) activity of the soul in accord with reason.
D) whatever makes you feel good about yourself.

Question 10

Aristotle differs from Plato in

A) believing knowledge is different from opinion.
B) holding that something like a puppy is as real as anything can be.
C) loving wisdom less.
D) being more otherworldly than Plato.

Question 11

Aristotle explains change in terms of

A) atoms and the void.
B) flux and opposition.
C) the vortex motion of the universe.
D) actuality and potentiality.

Question 12

Nature is purposive, Aristotle says, in virtue of

A) the plan God had in mind when he created nature.
B) intentions resident in every nature-fact.
C) the entelechy resident in things.
D) our using nature for our own purposes.

Question 13

What distinguishes primary substance from all the other categories?

Question 14

What is truth?

Question 15

Does Aristotle's logic do anything to resolve the problems posed by the Sophists' teaching of rhetoric?

Question 16

What is a first principle? Why are first principles needed? How are they known?

Question 17

What is an essence?

Question 18

What is God like? What kind of cause is God?

Question 19

Characterize the three kinds of soul.

Question 20

How is soul related to body?

Question 21

In what way is pleasure part of the good life?

Question 22

Explain Aristotle's doctrine of the mean.

Question 23

What is practical wisdom?

Question 24

Does having a bad character excuse a person? Explain.

Question 25

What is a syllogism? Give an example (different from any in the text). What are the two good-making features of arguments, according to Aristotle? Does your example satisfy those criteria?

Question 26

How does Aristotle's unmoved mover move things other than itself?

Question 27

(a) Explain the development of an acorn into an oak tree in an Aristotelian manner, using the concepts of matter and form, potentiality and actuality, together with the four causes.
(b) Contrast this with an atomist account of the same phenomena.

Question 28

Explain Aristotle's doctrine of virtue, bringing in the concepts of a mean, practical wisdom, and the relation of virtue to happiness.

Question 29

Compare Aristotle's view of knowledge with that of Plato. What are its characteristics? What are its objects? By what procedures can we come to know?

Question 30

Compare Aristotle and Plato on the question of reality. What kinds of things are most real? Why?

Question 31

Compare Aristotle and Plato on the nature of the soul, including its relationship to the body. Do not neglect to bring Aristotle's concept of nous into the picture.

Question 32

The importance of scripted ritual is a difficult thing to sell to students who value an independent, unique, and self-reliant mode of cultural expression. This is especially true in regard to the rituals of everyday Confucian life, as opposed to funeral or birth rites. Try to get them thinking about how the smoothing of daily interaction would make life better because it would be less awkward. I find that students rarely consider awkwardness an important social issue.

Question 33

Open up a conversation about whether or not one can do good things for the wrong reasons. For the philosophers discussed in this chapter, this is not possible. The acts would be sullied by their poor intentions.

Question 34

Form a dialogue about the differences between the "bad" that the Xunzi attributes to human nature and "original sin" in the Christian traditions. How does the metaphysical presence of a human soul frame the discussion about human nature that is different than the ideas that the philosophers in this chapter presented?