Chapter 4: The Wise Man: Socrates Flashcards
What is the irony in Socrates as the archetype of wisdom?
a. He is considered wise despite having no formal education or advanced degrees.
b. It took many generations to recognize his wisdom, long after he was dead.
c. We cannot use his wisdom to improve our own lives today.
d. His wisdom comes from understanding that he doesn’t really know anything
d. His wisdom comes from understanding that he doesn’t really know anything
What is dangerous about Socratic wisdom?
a. Questioning authority and current common beliefs can make enemies of people in power and those who don’t want change.
b. There are risks to following in Socrates’s footsteps because you might be in error, get the wrong beliefs, and make mistakes if you’re not as talented as Socrates himself.
c. Socratic wisdom is so powerful that people will be jealous.
d. Socratic wisdom was so specific to life in ancient Greece that it might not apply well to our lives today.
a. Questioning authority and current common beliefs can make enemies of people in power and those who don’t want change.
If Socrates didn’t write anything down, how do we know what he believed?
a. His ideas were passed down through oral traditions common to ancient cultures.
b. Others shared Socrates’s beliefs, most notably his greatest student Plato.
c. It’s a problem that has multiple possible solutions, which philosophers still debate to this day.
d. We have to each interpret for ourselves rather than try to think we could ever know what Socrates himself was thinking or teaching.
b. Others shared Socrates’s beliefs, most notably his greatest student Plato.
Does the Socratic problem mean that philosophy is whatever you think and that philosophical answers and viewpoints are up to each individual?
a. Philosophy is still interesting thousands of years later because there is no neutral view of Socrates, yet there is enough clarity of who he was and what he believed for there to be interpretations that are better and worse.
b. The Socratic problem is one that can be solved but only through close reading of complex texts using careful logical analysis.
c. Socrates is the beginning of the history of the philosophical method of personal interpretation.
d. Philosophy has always been a matter of opinion, but we can learn to express our opinions with more persuasive appeal and fancier-sounding language when we study the great archetypes of the past.
a. Philosophy is still interesting thousands of years later because there is no neutral view of Socrates, yet there is enough clarity of who he was and what he believed for there to be interpretations that are better and worse.
Despite many competing interpretations of Socrates, what general character traits do all people seem to agree Socrates showed consistently?
a. A love of beauty and the finer things in life
b. A light-heartedness to not get too serious about things that don’t matter
c. A deep respect for authority and tradition
d. A strong sense of self and a respect for justice
d. A strong sense of self and a respect for justice
Socrates was known for being conventionally unattractive, and yet he was unbothered by this. He was often the first to make fun of himself. What philosophical lesson can we learn through Socrates’s own relationship to his physical ugliness?
a. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, even beholding oneself in a mirror.
b. Beauty might be skin deep, but physical beauty is not the most important thing in life.
c. Real beauty is everywhere all around us if we only learn how to see it.
d. Real beauty is not in appearances but in someone’s character and inner self.
d. Real beauty is not in appearances but in someone’s character and inner self.
What is the name for the virtue Socrates displays in his remarkable self-control, allowing him the pleasures of eating, drinking, resting, and making love without indulging in immediate, cheap forms of those pleasures?
a. Temperance
b. Incontinence
c. Asceticism
d. Weakness of will
a. Temperance
Check My Work
What might be the source of Socrates’s self-understanding that he helps give birth to wisdom?
a. The source may be the appropriation of women’s work such as midwifery.
b. The source may be the theory of recollection combined with the ancient Greek religious view of reincarnation.
c. The disavowal of his own knowledge leads to his sense of being merely an assistant to others’ journeys of self-discovery.
d. The source may be the influence of many women in his life, including his midwife mother and the wise Diotima.
d. The source may be the influence of many women in his life, including his midwife mother and the wise Diotima.
How might Socrates’s philosophical teachings and lifestyle have made him a less-than-ideal father and husband?
a. Refusing to take money for teaching and living a simple life might have left his family feeling unsupported or cared for.
b. Spending so much time in public life left little time for family.
c. A commitment to temperance implies he didn’t love his family with passion.
d. Being admired, even loved, by so many young men of Athens made his family deeply jealous, and they were demonstrably unsupportive of his philosophical endeavors.
a. Refusing to take money for teaching and living a simple life might have left his family feeling unsupported or cared for.
Why does Karl Jaspers characterize Socrates as a paradigmatic individual, specifically a paradigmatic teacher, not a savior?
a. Because Socrates lived an exemplary life in his day rather than writing lessons and selling books so that he could ensure his message carried on long after his earthly life
b. Because Socrates was not a Christian, not Christ sent to save us from our sins
c. Because Socrates is a human who helps us be our best selves, not a divine being we cannot develop ourselves without
d. Because Socrates never tried to save anyone, only to show people their flaws
c. Because Socrates is a human who helps us be our best selves, not a divine being we cannot develop ourselves without
To what does Socrates attribute all evil?
a. Human nature
b. Hubris
c. Ignorance
d. Weakness of will
c. Ignorance
In the dialogue between Socrates and Thrasymachus, how does Thrasymachus define justice?
a. Justice comes from living a morally superior life instead of getting caught up in superficial things.
b. Justice is defined as the interest of the stronger party.
c. Justice consists of paying our debts and obeying the law.
d. Justice is fairness in distribution of good and bad alike to everyone regardless of their wealth.
b. Justice is defined as the interest of the stronger party.
What can we learn from the characterization of Thrasymachus as being loud, offensive, threatening physical violence, and barely willing or able to engage the Socratic method?
a. The consistency between his behavior and beliefs shows Thrasymachus to be Socrates’s equal.
b. We learn that the Socratic method is itself another form of sophistry, which comes in many forms.
c. That Thrasymachus is characterized as behaving counter to his own beliefs about justice shows him to be another person wrong for disagreeing with Socrates’s settled wisdom.
d. The consistency between his behavior and beliefs, both unappealing, reinforces the value of the Socratic method over force.
d. The consistency between his behavior and beliefs, both unappealing, reinforces the value of the Socratic method over force.
What is a basic assumption of the Socratic method?
a. That unruly and self-interested students need to be disciplined before they are ready to learn
b. That the function of education is to fill an empty vessel
c. That each individual has their own truth that teachers can help them discover
d. That the function of education is to draw the truth out of the student
d. That the function of education is to draw the truth out of the student
Socrates’s teaching actively involved the audience and not only the participants of the dialogue by using what technique?
a. Brilliant and dynamic lecturing from Socrates
b. Voting so that majority rules
c. Not stopping until the main issue of the day was resolved and everyone agreed
d. Socratic dialectic, or asking questions
d. Socratic dialectic, or asking questions
Imagine you were one of the 501 jurors at Socrates’s trial. What would Socrates hope you understood in his opening remarks about the persuasive powers of the Sophists who accused him of wrongdoing?
a. Detect the irony that the Sophists persuaded him of nothing
b. Understand the drama of his sophistry as the same type as but more skilled than that of his accusers
c. Be drawn into another Socratic dialectic to rethink the justice of the laws he is accused of breaking
d. Hear his apology as an admission of guilt
a. Detect the irony that the Sophists persuaded him of nothing
What is Socratic irony used for?
a. To appear to show reverence for law while secretly making fun of authority and power
b. To communicate that all meaning is impossible to pin down
c. To communicate on more than one level of meaning
d. Audience engagement
c. To communicate on more than one level of meaning
What was the ambiguous reply of the Oracle at Delphi to the question: Is anyone wiser than Socrates?
a. “Who is qualified to say?”
b. “Only he who knows, knows more than Socrates.”
c. “Wisdom is for the asking.”
d. “No man is wiser than Socrates.”
d. “No man is wiser than Socrates.”
What is not a possible interpretation of Socrates’s acceptance of the Oracle at Delphi’s pronouncement of Socrates’s wisdom?
a. It is another instance of irony in Socrates’s language that invites us to rethink conventional ideas about knowledge and wisdom.
b. It is an admission that his wisdom is nothing more than knowing to never disagree with a powerful oracle.
c. It is Socrates showing his humility, showing the limits of human knowledge, which makes him wise after all.
d. It is a clever sophistical craft of pretending to be ignorant so he can expose his interlocutor’s actual ignorance and humiliate them in public.
b. It is an admission that his wisdom is nothing more than knowing to never disagree with a powerful oracle.
In the Apology where Socrates defends himself against the charges of impiety and corrupting the youth, how does he characterize the focus of his work?
a. As a thief of knowledge
b. As a physician of the soul
c. As a bridegroom of sophrosyne
d. As a pruner of the tree of wisdom
b. As a physician of the soul
Why would being charged with corrupting the youth be a capital crime, a crime punishable by death?
a. Every Athenian citizen made a contract with the state to obey all laws or face harsh punishments if they showed no contrition in the sentencing phase of the trial.
b. Teaching, through active demonstration and the questioning of authorities, was viewed by many as an act of disloyalty in a society that valued allegiance and respect.
c. The charges became punishable by death only for Socrates and only after Alcibiades—Socrates’ student—betrayed Athens by advising the Spartans in the war against Athens.
d. All wrongs involving underage people were considered capital crimes because the youth were future citizens who needed to be protected and carefully educated for the continuity of Athens.
b. Teaching, through active demonstration and the questioning of authorities, was viewed by many as an act of disloyalty in a society that valued allegiance and respect.
What does Socrates mean when he asserts that “the unexamined life is not worth living”?
a. The only philosophical question that matters is deciding whether life is worth living.
b. A life lived without the right and true answers is a dangerous life.
c. Taking exams is an effective way of figuring out what the good life is and how best to live it fully.
d. Without conscious awareness, one is living for the body, not the soul, and that is not a fully human life.
d. Without conscious awareness, one is living for the body, not the soul, and that is not a fully human life.
If you were a friend sitting with Socrates in his jail cell as he drank the hemlock—a poison that would have caused him serious pain before his death—what might you learn from his refusal to delay, from his insistence that there was nothing to gain and much to lose in delaying his death any longer?
a. He felt a need to appear strong in front of his friends, to leave one last good impression in hopes of a good reputation long after his death.
b. His advanced age and failure to convince enough jurors left Socrates with no more will to live.
c. Believing the real self is the soul not the body, he thought he would not feel the pain caused by the poison.
d. Having long taught that death was no evil, fearing death now would devalue his life’s work.
d. Having long taught that death was no evil, fearing death now would devalue his life’s work.
When asked how his friends should bury him, Socrates replied, “In any way you like; but first you must get hold of me.” What are the multiple levels of meaning of the “me” Socrates refers to?
a. His body and soul, which will perish together at death
b. His past, present, and future selves, which unite to form a single narrative self for eternity
c. His heart and mind, which will no longer experience any conflict or uncertainty
d. His body and soul, which will separate at death
d. His body and soul, which will separate at death
What were the last words Socrates spoke as a public figure, on trial for his life, reinforcing one more time what he had always insisted?
a. “I neither know nor think that I know.”
b. “Now is not the time for making new enemies.”
c. “I apologize.”
d. “The unlived life is not worth examining.”
a. “I neither know nor think that I know.”
