Deck 8: Virtue Ethics From Tribal Philosophy to Socrates and Plato

Question 1

Why did Socrates refuse to leave Athens?

Answer 1

No Answer

Question 2

What is Socrates' definition of the good life?

Answer 2

No Answer

Question 3

What did Socrates mean by saying that only ignorance leads to wrongdoing?

Answer 3

No Answer

Question 4

According to Kant, what is essential to the moral decision process?

Question 5

Describe Plato's theory of the role of women in his ideal republic, and explain his view of raising children among the guardians. Would this work as a model for an actual society? What aspects of the model might or might not work?

Question 6

What are the Platonic Forms? Explain with at least two examples. Why has Plato's philosophy led to him being called an idealist or dualist?

Question 7

What do the Forms attempt to explain? What are some of the difficulties with Plato's theory of the Forms?

Question 8

Explain with examples the difference between materialism, idealism, and dualism.

Question 9

Summarize the story of "The Myth of the Cave," and explain its philosophical significance.

Question 10

In the context of virtue, what is the epitome of misunderstanding according to Socrates?

Question 11

Put yourself in the mind of one of the jurors at Socrates' trial. On the basis of the excerpt you've read and the information you have about the conditions in Athens, what would your verdict be?

Question 12

Imagine you were assigned as Socrates' legal counsel. What would you advise him to do or say in order to escape a death sentence? Do you think it might make a difference?

Question 13

Explore the similarities and differences between the cases of Socrates and Sir Thomas More. If you were in More's position, what would you have chosen to do?

Question 14

What are the similarities between Plato's "Myth of the Cave" and The Truman Show, and what are the differences?

Question 15

Dworkin writes, "It is difficult to find enough product value in most people's lives to suppose that they have meaning through their impact." Do you agree? What does Dworkin see as an alternative way that a life can have meaning? Explain.

Question 16

Which of the following is a view of the Akan people on ethics?

A) They believe that ethics are determined by God.
B) They believe that ethics should be commanded and established by religious clerks.
C) They believe that good character can be acquired through good habits.
D) They believe that the well-being of an individual is more important than the well-being of the community.

Question 17

According to Socrates, he refused to escape from prison because

A) he believed that his sentence was just.
B) he thought he could make a greater political impact by dying as a martyr.
C) he wanted to engage in a diplomatic fight with the judges.
D) he believed that two wrongs wouldn't make a right.

Question 18

Which of the following statements is true about Socrates?

A) He believed that virtue is a question of personal preference.
B) He believed that each situation has its Truth.
C) He believed that virtue is relative to one's own time and culture.
D) He believed that truth and appearance are the same.

Question 19

According to Plato, who among the following corresponds to willpower in a state?

A) Merchants
B) Philosopher-kings
C) Soldiers
D) Businesspeople

Question 20

In the context of the tripartite soul, the element of reason corresponds to the virtue of

A) wisdom.
B) memory.
C) temperance.
D) courage.

Question 21

What was Plato's view of an ideal republic?

A) He advocated that anyone should be eligible to be a ruler or a guardian regardless of his or her gender.
B) He advocated that hierarchies in a state should be relaxed and adaptable to changing needs.
C) He advocated that people should focus on their own well-being rather than on the well-being of the state.
D) He advocated that guardians and mothers should raise their own children rather than let them be raised in common.

Question 22

Freudian psychological theory involves three parts of the human psyche. Which of the following is NOT part of the list?

A) Ego
B) Superego
C) Doxa
D) Id

Question 23

What is a "tripartite soul"?

A) A person with multiple personality disorder
B) A soul contemplating the problem of too much action, right action, and too little action
C) A soul consisting of three parts
D) A person of mixed ethnic heritage

Question 24

Which of the following philosophies states that reality is made up of things that can be measured?

A) Materialism
B) Spiritualism
C) Platonism
D) Relativism

Question 25

According to Plato, which of the following statements is true about the world of Forms?

A) The world of Forms is purely material.
B) The world of Forms represents the jumble of sensory experience.
C) Abstract concepts are at the highest level in the world of Forms.
D) The world of Forms is everywhere that one can see and touch.

Question 26

Who speaks the following words? "For the fear of death is indeed the pretense of wisdom and not real wisdom, being a pretense of knowing the unknown; for no one knows whether death, which men in their fear think is the greatest evil, may not be the greatest good."

A) Socrates, in the Apology
B) Ronald Dworkin, in "What Is a Good Life?"
C) Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics
D) Robert Sheckley, in "The Store of the Worlds"

Question 27

Who speaks the following words? "If we lived in a state where virtue was profitable, common sense would make us saints, but since we see that avarice, anger, pride and stupidity commonly profit far beyond charity, modesty, justice and thought, perhaps we must stand fast a little, even at the risk of being heroes."

A) Socrates, in the Apology
B) Sir Thomas More, in A Man for All Seasons
C) Aristotle, in Nicomachean Ethics
D) Njal, in Njal's Saga

Question 28

The film The Truman Show has a plot that resembles Plato's "Myth of the Cave." What is the plot?

A) Truman lives in a world he believes to be real, although it is just a movie stage.
B) Truman discovers that the world is nothing but a movie stage, and he proceeds to let others know.
C) Truman and a film director plot to create a make-believe world whose inhabitants believe that shadows cast on a wall are reality.
D) There is no plot in The Truman Show that resembles Plato's story of the cave.

Question 29

In The Store of the Worlds, Mr. Wayne's subconscious notion of the best life is

A) a normal, everyday life, without any special riches or fame.
B) a life in which he produces a lasting positive effect on the world.
C) a life filled with unusual wealth and power.
D) a spiritually rich life in which he devotes himself to God.

Question 30

Virtue ethics is commonly opposed to ethics of character.

Question 31

In a global overview of cultural narratives with moral dimensions, the majority of myths tend to favor virtue ethics over rigid rules of conduct.

Question 32

In the African "Akan" cultural value system, ethics is perceived as something commanded by God.

Question 33

From the time of the Renaissance to well into the twentieth century, questions of ethics were less a matter of doing the right thing to please God and more a matter of doing the right thing because it led to general happiness.

Question 34

In the context of yielding better results, ethics of conduct is considered to be more fundamental than virtue ethics.

Question 35

Manichaeism taught that the powers of light and the powers of darkness are locked in battle until the final day.

Question 36

The dialectic method of teaching specifically uses written texts as a form of communication.

Question 37

Socrates had little influence among the young men of Athens who were interested in pursuing a political career in the future.

Question 38

Socrates implied that he was not bound to any one conception of reality unless it could be tested by reason.

Question 39

Socrates believed that we cannot hope to attain virtue without the use of our reason.

Question 40

According to dualism, reality consists of matter rather than mind.

Question 41

Plato gathered Socrates' writings and published them under his own name.

Question 42

In his later dialogues, Plato uses the character of Socrates as a mouthpiece for his own philosophy.

Question 43

Socrates firmly believed that virtue should be a question of personal choice and that it should be relative to one's own time and culture.

Question 44

For Plato, the world of Forms represents the jumble of sensory experience.

Question 45

In Plato's dialogue The Republic, Socrates insists that only a well-balanced person with a sense of justice can be happy.

Question 46

For Plato, the virtue of temperance is achieved when one's desires (appetites) are properly controlled.

Question 47

According to Plato, women are ineligible to be guardians or soldiers regardless of their talent or skill.

Question 48

In his ideal republic, Plato envisioned a plan that allowed guardians to focus on what was good for the state rather than themselves.

Question 49

Both Plato and Freud developed theories that divided the human soul into three aspects.

Question 50

Plato is considered the founder of modern Freudian psychoanalysis.

Question 51

Like Plato, Freud believed that we can access and control the part of the psyche that houses our desires and drives.

Question 52

Most philosophers who are interested in metaphysics are also believers in reincarnation.

Question 53

In philosophy, a person's view of reality is called metaphysics.

Question 54

According to Plato, the world of Forms never changes.

Question 55

According to Socrates, no one is willfully evil, provided that he or she understands the truth about the situation.

Question 56

In the writings of Augustine, Christianity became a religion that looked to earthly pleasures as the true reason for human existence.

Question 57

In "The Myth of the Cave," the prisoners symbolize all people who are tied down by a sense of guilt.

Question 58

In "The Myth of the Cave," the prisoners symbolize all humans who think the world of the senses is the real world.

Question 59

Socrates says that virtue is not given by money, but that from virtue comes money and every other good of man, public as well as private.

Question 60

Dworkin believed that a life is valuable only if it produces something, whether it be a book or an invention or a work of art.

Question 61

Dworkin believed that the end result is much more important that the means through which people get the end result.

Question 62

In A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is jailed and executed for heresy and corrupting the youth in a historical situation bearing a remarkable resemblance to that of Socrates.

Question 63

In A Man for All Seasons, Sir Thomas More is jailed and executed for refusing to compromise his moral standards.

Question 64

In the film The Truman Show, Truman is the only one who realizes that the entire world is nothing but a movie stage.