Comps Study Set: Ancient

What is the problem at the end of Book I of the Republic? How does Socrates propose to solve it?

What are the virtues? Can you define any of them? (Republic)

Talk about the degeneration of the city. What does this say about the virtuous man (is it possible to be/stay virtuous?) (Republic)

What does Plato hope to achieve by looking at justice at the level of the state in the Republic? How about the level of man?

Tell me about the tri-partite soul. (Republic)

What is the role of the forms in the Republic?

What is one of the first formulations of justice in the Republic? How is it refuted?

Talk about the "Analogy of the Sun," the "Allegory of the Cave," and the "Myth of Er." (Republic)

What is the structure of the Divided Line? (Republic)

How does Plato talk about the moral and intellectual virtues? (Republic)

What is the point of the Republic?

What is the significance of Cephalus/the beginning of the Republic? How does it bear on the dialogue as a whole?

What does Thrasymachus say about justice? How is he refuted? (Republic)

What are the 3 forms of justice given in Book 1, and how are they refuted? (Republic)

What is Glaucon's question? How does Socrates answer him? (Republic)

How does Glaucon shift the argument in Book 2? (Republic)

How is the problem of the ring of Gyges answered in the Republic?

What is Plato's notion of justice?

What are the three parts of the state and the soul? What are the virtues of each? (Republic)

How does justice differ from the good? (Republic)

Why is justice good in itself? (Republic)

What is the difference between justice in the individual and justice in the ideal Republic? Outline justice in the state and in the soul.

What can you say about education in the Republic?

What is the noble lie and what is its role in the book? (Republic)

What does the sun represent in Plato’s allegory of the cave? (Republic)

Could Plato come to a definition of the good? (Republic)

How does the Good relate to the other ideas? (Republic)

Does it seem odd to you that all of the virtues but justice match up to a class in the city? (Republic)

Describe the myth of metals. Why is it necessary? (Republic)

How does Plato talk about the moral and intellectual virtues? (Republic)

What makes justice good for the soul–without any external goods, just on its own? (Republic)

Some people say that Plato isn’t really concerned with the city at all, but just with the human soul. What do you think of that, and what do you think Plato is really up to? (Republic)

What is the relationship between the city and individual? (Republic)

Summarize the Republic in one sentence.

Is the Republic supposed to be a real political theory? Is it tenable?

Do you think the Republic is a just city?  Why or why not?

Does Socrates prove that virtue makes the virtuous person better? (Republic)

What are the 3 definitions of knowledge in the Theatetus?

What is one refutation of knowledge as perception? (Theaetetus)

What is the importance of the discussion of perception in the Theaetetus?

How does Plato describe perception? (Theaetetus)

Does one err when one perceives? What are the ways of erring with regard to perceiving something? (Theaetetus)

Aristotle mentions a flute player. Why/what does the musician have to do with virtue? (Nic Ethics)

Why are the intellectual virtues virtues in the Nicomachean Ethics?

How does Aristotle reject Plato’s notion of the Good? How does this relate to happiness? (Nic Ethics)

What are some possibilities that Aristotle proposes as our end? (Nic Ethics)

What is Aristotle's definition of happiness? (Nic Ethics)

What is Aristotle’s definition of the good life? (Nic Ethics)

How do emotions relate to ethics? (Nic Ethics)

What defines the good way of eating, drinking, etc? (Nic Ethics)

Discuss pleasure (both common and highest) and happiness (both as activity with regard to the life of a virtuous person and with regard to the highest contemplative life). (Nic Ethics)

Define friendship(s) in NE. How is it that the two lower forms of friendship fit the definition of being for the good of another individual (think of the examples of friendships between those who are unequal in rank)? What is the central difference between the lower forms and the highest friendship?

What is the definition of friendship in Aristotle, and what are the three friendships? Give some examples. (Nic Ethics)

At the beginning of the Ethics, Aristotle says that the science aims at something. What does it aim at?

What is the highest science for Aristotle in the Ethics?

If you have a reckless disposition, what is the mean relative to you, and should you aim further towards cowardice than right at courage? (Nic Ethics)

Politics is the highest science in the Ethics, but at the end he mentions contemplation. Is this a higher science then politics? (Nic Ethics)

What would Plotinus think about the Confessions, if he had read it? (Plotinus)

Talk about the soul’s ascent in Plotinus’ “On Beauty”.

Compare Plotinus’ to Augustine’s conception of time.

How is the function of Eros different for Plotinus as opposed to Plato’s and/or Aristotle’s understanding of desire?

What is perpetuity and perdurance for Plotinus? How does he use the two notions?

What is Plotinus’ notion of time?

How does his notion of Beauty relate to symmetry? (Plotinus)

What is Beauty, for Plotinus?

What is the hierarchy of souls in De Anima?

What is Aristotle setting out to do in De Anima? Why?

How does Aristotle's picture of the soul in De Anima differ from Plato's in the Republic?

How does the hierarchy of souls wok in De Amina? What sets humans apart in it, and why?

What is the purpose of the Wax Analogy in the Theaetetus? What about the Aviary? How do they differ?

What is the overall structure/flow of the argument in the Theaetetus? 

Talk about the use of poetic media in the Republic (with regard to the education of the guardians) as opposed to the presentation of the function of tragedy in the Nic Ethics.

What is the importance of the discussion of perception in the Theaetetus? How does Plato describe perception? Does one err when one perceives? What are the ways of erring with regard to perceiving something?

Define friendship(s) in NE. How is it that the two lower forms of friendship fit the definition of being for the good of another individual (think of the examples of friendships between those who are unequal in rank)? What is the central difference between the lower forms and the highest friendship?

Talk about the soul’s ascent in Plotinus’ “On Beauty”.

How is the function of Eros different for Plotinus as opposed to Plato’s and/or Aristotle’s understanding of desire?

How does happiness differ for Aristotle and for Kant?

What is the definition of virtue/eudaimonia in the Nic Ethics?

What is the role of the forms in the Republic?

What is the structure of the divided line analogy?

How does Plato talk about the moral and intellectual virtues?

How does Aristotle talk about the will in De Anima?

What can you say about education in the Republic?

What does Aristotle mean by virtue? How do we acquire it?