Plato

Question 1

When was ‘The Republic’ written ?

Answer 1

Around 360BCE

Question 2

What does ‘Aristoi’ translate to ?

Answer 2

The Best

Question 3

What was Athenian society like when Plato was basing his writing of it ?

Answer 3

Had 40,000 citizens and was becoming increasingly dominated by commerce and trade , where economics was emerging as an academic discipline .

Question 4

When was the Sophist movement emerging and what was it associated with ?

Answer 4

Emerged in 5th century BCE and was associated with Protagoras and Gorgias

Question 5

What does democracy mean and what is it purpose according to plato?

Answer 5

Means “rule by the people” and as a system is a mechanism for finding out what people want/desire and making laws accordingly

Question 6

What are the three types of equality?

Answer 6

Legal , Political and Natural

Question 7

What is an ethical life according to Plato?

Answer 7

One which is devoted to the cultivation of virtue and to the principles of justice and Law

Question 8

What is Eudaimonia?

Answer 8

Happiness

Question 9

What two type of Justice does Plato state there is ?

Answer 9

Individual justice and society as a whole justice

Question 10

What three classes is the ideal society made of ?

Answer 10

The Guardians , The Auxiliaries and The Business Class

Question 11

What is associated with the three ideal society ?

Answer 11

Guardians (Reasons) , Auxiliaries (Spirit) and Business Class( Passion)

Question 12

What is the soul made up of ?

Answer 12

Reason , Spirit and Passion

Question 13

What is Epistemology and Metaphysics ?

Answer 13

‘Theory of knowledge’ and questions about the nature of reality

Question 14

What is common sense epistemology ?

Answer 14

Empiricism with the view that knowledge is derived by means of the sense or by perceptions. Plato critiques this as sense can deceive us .

Question 15

What is common sense metaphysics?

Answer 15

Materialism or physicalism , the world is composed of materials or physical objects observable by the senses.

Question 16

What is objective idealist ?

Answer 16

For ideas to be real , ideas do not have to be present in the mind of a knowing subject

Question 17

What is Subject idealist?

Answer 17

there is not reality which subsists independently of any knowing subject

Question 18

What is Plato’s epistemology ?

Answer 18

It is Rationalism where the senses provide us with opinion or belief rather than knowledge

Question 19

What is Plato’s metaphysics ?

Answer 19

His defence of philosophical idealism

Question 20

What is the allegory of the cave?

Answer 20

Those who hold assumptions of everyday life are constrained and “blinkered”

Question 21

What are Plato’s opinions on education ?

Answer 21

That it is the key to the emancipation of people enslaved by their own ignorance

Question 22

What is Plato’s opinions on passions?

Answer 22

That people can be a slave to their passions when they act on their own desires for purely selfish motives .

Question 23

What is the task of philosophy ?

Answer 23

To purse “The Truth”. This is discovered by the faculty of reason.