Second Exam Study Guide Answers Available In Lecture Notes ✓ Solved
Second Exam Study Guide Answers Available In Lecture Notes On Canvas
Second Exam Study Guide (answers available in lecture notes on Canvas)
Plato’s Republic Book I 1.) What is the first definition offered for the concept in question, and what counter- example does Socrates provide against it? (331c-e). 2.) What is the second definition offered for the concept in question, which is further qualified by an appeal to the status between the subject and their relationships, and what counter-example does Socrates provide against it? 3.) What is Socrates’ position on retributive harms, and what argument does he provide from the nature and end of a thing, using the example of a racehorse? What is Thrasymachus’ contrary view concerning the definition of the concept that is at the heart of this dialogue and what are some of Socrates’ arguments against this view? (name at least one).
Plato’s Republic Book IV 4.) What are the four virtues that were commonly-acknowledged in ancient Greece (and continued through the medieval period)? 5.) What are the three classes of citizens in Plato’s ideal Republic, and the corresponding virtues in each? 6.) Which of the four virtues are left over and why are they not localized in one particular class like the rest? 7.) What is justice in Plato’s ideal Republic? 8.) Why is the ‘division of labor’ so important to Plato?
9.) How is the organizational structure of the Republic connected to the human soul? What arguments does Socrates provide for this connection? Plato’s Republic Book VI 10.) Explain Plato’s ‘Simile of the sun.’ What does it claim about perception, knowledge, existence and the other forms? 11.) Be able to draw Plato’s ‘divided line’ that illustrates the relation between his epistemology and metaphysics, as well as the relation of those two disciplines to the material and sensible realm. Plato’s Republic Book VII 12.) Explain Plato’s ‘simile (or allegory/analogy) of the cave.’ What does it claim about perception, knowledge, existence and the forms? Who escapes from it, how do they do so, and what ethical obligation is placed upon those who escape? Aristotle’s Categories 13.) List Aristotle’s ten categories of being and provide a short explanation of what these categories are, as well as how the total set of ten can be understood to be divided into two more primary divisions. 14.) What is ‘predication’ and what is the difference between ‘essential’ and ‘accidental’ predication? 15.) What are ‘universals’ as opposed to ‘particulars’? 16.) Be able to draw a ‘category tree’ (Porphyrian tree) in order to illustrate your knowledge of how particulars are divided into genera, species and differentia. (Remember my examples on the board in class.) 17.) Be able to provide some examples of universal secondary substances, particular primary substances, universal accidents, and particular accidents. 18.) How are substances used by Aristotle to answer the primary Pre-Socratic question of “What is change and what permanent element survives through change? Aristotle’s De Anima (On the Soul) 19.) What are first and second potentialities and actualities? Describe the difference and provide an example of each. 20.) What is Aristotle’s definition of a soul? What kind of soul does a human being have, which defines the sort of species that a human being is? 21.) Describe and explain the three degrees of soul that all exist in a ‘nested hierarchy’ in the highest kind of soul. 22.) What is Aristotle’s view of the relationship between the soul and the body in a human being? Can the human soul live without the body? Aristotle’s Physics (The Four Causes) 23.) Name, explain and give examples of Aristotle’s four causes. 24.) How do the four causes exist in biological species? Aristotle’s De Anima (On the soul) 25.) What is Aristotle’s definition of the human soul?
Sample Paper For Above instruction
Introduction
The philosophical inquiries of Plato and Aristotle serve as foundational pillars for understanding the nature of justice, the soul, and causality in Western thought. This essay explores core concepts from Plato’s "Republic" and Aristotle's "Categories," "De Anima," and "Physics," elucidating their theories on virtues, the structure of the state, epistemology, metaphysics, and the science of causation. By examining these ancient perspectives, we gain insights into the enduring significance of their philosophical frameworks.
Plato’s Republic: Justice, Virtues, and the Tripartite Soul
Book I of Plato’s "Republic" critically examines definitions of justice. The first definition posits that justice is simply telling the truth and returning what is owed, but Socrates counters with the example of a crooked salesman who returns the wrong item, illustrating that this definition is insufficient. The second definition considers justice as doing good to friends and harm to enemies. Socrates refutes this by highlighting that justice cannot be about favoritism since it would justify unjust acts done to everyone, regardless of friendship or enmity. Socrates' stance rejects retributive harms, exemplified through the racehorse analogy, suggesting that harming some in revenge contradicts the true nature of justice.
Thrasymachus argues that justice is the advantage of the stronger, implying that might makes right, a view Socrates opposes by emphasizing justice as a virtue beneficial for the soul, not merely for power. The ideal virtues in Greece—wisdom, courage, moderation, and justice—are manifested in the tripartite division of the soul: reason, spirit, and appetite. Each class of citizens embodies a virtue: rulers possess wisdom, guardians embody courage, and workers represent moderation. The remaining virtue, justice, integrates these virtues, ensuring harmony within the individual and the state.
The Interior Structure of Justice and the State
Justice, in Plato’s view, is the harmony where each class performs its function without interference. The division of labor ensures the efficient functioning of both the state and the soul, mirroring each other. The organizational structure of the republic aligns with the tripartite soul: rulers (reason), auxiliaries (spirit), and producers (desire). Socrates argues that this harmony arises from the proper ordering of these parts, which leads to the state’s justice and the soul’s well-being.
Epistemology and Metaphysics: The Sun and the Divided Line
Plato’s "Simile of the Sun" elucidates the nature of knowledge and existence—just as the sun enables sight and life, the Form of the Good illuminates truth and reality. The divided line illustrates the epistemic gap from illusion through belief and understanding to pure intelligence, corresponding to the physical (visible) and intelligible (immaterial) realms. The highest knowledge is intellectual apprehension of the Forms, which are perfect and unchanging, unlike perceptible objects.
The Allegory of the Cave
In the "Allegory of the Cave," prisoners perceive shadows cast on the wall, representing perception limited to the sensory realm. The freed individual escapes the cave by turning away from the shadows toward the light of the Sun, gaining true knowledge of the Forms. This philosopher has an ethical obligation to return and enlighten others, ensuring the proper governance of the state based on true knowledge.
Aristotle’s Categories and Substance Theory
Aristotle identifies ten categories: substance, quantity, quality, relation, place, time, position, state, action, and passion. These are divided into primary substances (individual entities like a particular man), and secondary substances (universal kinds like humanity). Predication distinguishes essential predicates (defining what a substance is) from accidental predicates (attributes that may or may not belong to the substance).
Universals are general concepts like "redness" or "beauty," contrasted with particulars such as a specific apple. The Porphyrian tree illustrates how particulars are hierarchically classified into genera, species, and differentiae, with universal secondary substances (e.g., "animal") and particular primary substances (e.g., "Socrates"). Accidents are contingent qualities or relations that may vary without altering the essence.
Substances and the Pre-Socratic Inquiry
Aristotle uses substances to address change, positing that substances are the primary bearers of change and persistence through time. The essential matter of a substance remains unchanged, while its accidental features can vary. This resolves pre-Socratic questions about permanence and flux by identifying substances as the enduring core of reality.
The Soul: The Hierarchical Tripartite Entity
Aristotle defines the soul as the "first actuality" of a natural body with life. The soul encompasses three degrees: vegetative (nutrition and growth), sensitive (perception and movement), and rational (deliberation and reasoning). These are nested hierarchically, with the rational soul as the highest, exclusive to humans. The human soul cannot live independently of the body, as the soul and body form an inseparable unity essential for life.
The Four Causes in Nature and Biology
Aristotle’s four causes explain change and existence: material cause (the matter, e.g., bronze for a statue), formal cause (the form or essence), efficient cause (the agent or process that brings change), and final cause (the purpose or end). In biology, these causes elucidate how organisms develop, function, and fulfill their natural ends, with, for example, the heart’s material and formal causes shaping its function in circulation.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the insights from Plato and Aristotle remain foundational to Western philosophy. Plato's focus on the realm of Forms, the soul’s harmony, and the pursuit of knowledge contrast with Aristotle’s empirical approach, categorization of beings, and detailed causality. These perspectives continue to influence contemporary metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, and science.
References
- Aristotle. (1984). Categories and Other Basic Works. Translated by Richard McKeon. Vintage.
- Aristotle. (1998). De Anima (On the Soul). Translated by R. D. Hicks. Harvard University Press.
- Aristotle. (2009). The Physics. Translated by Robin Waterfield. Oxford University Press.
- Plato. (1992). The Republic. Translated by G. R. Griffiths. W. W. Norton & Company.
- Plato. (2003). Divided Line and Allegory of the Cave. In Platonis Opera. (A.P. D. Griffin, Ed.).
- Burnyeat, M. (1990). "Aristotle's Hierarchy of Souls". Oxford Studies in Ancient Philosophy, 8, 3-15.
- Kraut, R. (2018). The Cambridge Companion to Aristotle. Cambridge University Press.
- Reeve, C. D. C. (1992). Philosopher-Kings: The Argument of Plato's Republic. Princeton University Press.
- Annas, J. (1993). Human Nature and the Virtues. Oxford University Press.
- Sorabji, R. (2006). Aristotle and The Philosophy of Animal Life. Cornell University Press.