Republic Questions

YOU NEED QUESTIONS ON THE REPUBLIC?

What, you are teaching the Republic and have great questions for Books I-IV but don’t have good questions after that? Both reading comprehension and discussion questions, as well as essay prompts? I got you!

Book V What are the “four forms of badness”? Why is Glaucon interested in them? Is it wise to study badness? 449c Polemarchus and Adeimantus think Socrates is “robbing” them out of “a whole section of the argument…” namely, that “women and children” will “be in common. Socrates says, “How much discussion you’ve set in motion…” Why does Socrates skip it? Why do they want him to go through it? 451c-453c Are men and women different in nature? 453d In the swimming in the pool or sea image, what is the “swimming” Socrates is talking about? What is the ocean? What might the dolphin be? 454a What is the difference between eristic and dialectic? 459e What is the benefit of arranging marriages? What is the benefit of freely chosen marriages? What is the cost of each? 462b What does Socrates mean that “the [greatest] evil for a city … splits it and makes it many instead of one…”? How does the argument propose to absolve factions? (See also 465c and 473b) 464c Is private ownership of land, children, houses, etc. and an evil for the city? Is it good? Is it neutral? What is the benefit of communal ownership, according to Socrates? 466d The life of women and children in common has been explained. Is it possible? (See also 471c) 473c What are the three waves? Why is the third the “biggest”? 474a Who are “the many” men who will attack Socrates “if he doesn’t defend himself with speech and get away”? Why are they so mad? 475b Socrates and Glaucon assert, “that the philosopher is a desirer of wisdom, not of one part and not another, but of all of it.” Is this true? In other words, if you don’t like any kind of wisdom (botanical, astronomical, theological, physical, psychological) does that mean you are not a desirer of wisdom? 477a What is opinion? What knowledge? What is the object of each? Book VI 484a Socrates mentions the “sharp-sighted guardian.” What does it mean to be sharp-sighted? Who is sharp-sighted in this text? 484d Glaucon says, “By Zeus”… What do these swearing moments point to? 485b What makes a “philosophic nature”, according to their argument? Do you agree? 487a What does being “a good rememberer” have to do with the philosophic nature? 487b What is wrong with those whom Adeimantus criticizes in this section, the “inexperienced at questioning and answering”? 487e Adeimantus says Socrates is “Unaccustomed to speaking through images”. Why is this so? 489a-b What is the meaning of Socrates’ shipowner image? How does it “resemble the cities in their disposition toward the true philosopher.”? 490e What’s the difference between being “useless” and being “viscous”? 491-492 Is the “course of learning” set down for the philosopher realistic? Does it matter or not? 496b What does it mean to “keep company with philosophy in a way that’s worthy”? 497 What is so “eager and reckless” about Socrates proposal for educating youth? 498b Were Socrates and Thrasymachus enemies before? Why does Socrates say they weren’t, and that they have become friends? 500 Socrates defends “the many” from their hatred of philosophers by saying that they actually hate the “outsiders.” Was Socrates hated in this way by the many? Could he “make the city happy”? (500e) 502d Socrates says it wasn’t “very wise of me to have left aside” the digression about women, children, and rulers. Why did he change his mind? Which is right? 503b “Philosophers must be the most precise guardians.” Write a one page (or more) description of Socrates’ guardian philosopher. Describe his youth, his education, his military career, and the way he rules the city. 504e What is “the finest” study? What is “that for the sake of which it does everything”? 505b What is better, Pleasure, Prudence, or the something else? 507b Follow Socrates’ comments carefully–how does the idea of the good itself come into the conversation? 507 What is the point of the image about light, the sun, and the eye? How does that connect to the good? 508 How is the study of the idea of the good the crown of the education of the guardian/philosopher? 509a Socrates sys “the good isn’t being but is still beyond being, exceeding it in dignity and power”. What does that mean? 509d Relate the intelligible class with the visible–what ratio is between them? What are the four types of thinking that correspond to the four objects of thought? 511a How are “hypothesis” “the beginning of arts” 511d How does Glaucon understand and agree with Socrates? What’s going on inside his soul at that moment? Book VII 514b Draw an image of the prison, a “cave-like” dwelling. Include as many details as possible, as if you had to build a set for a movie. 515c Socrates says, “Take a man who is release and suddenly compelled to stand up.” Who released him? 517 How does the two causes of blindness relate to the argument? 520 Why do philosophers have to rule? Is that unjust, as Glaucon suspects? 523d How do the sight of bigness and littleness awaken the intellect? 524 He says it is “necessary… that… the soul be at a loss” – how does being at a loss awaken the intellect? 526 How does geometry assist the pursuit of knowledge/wisdom? 529 How does astronomy assist the pursuit of knowledge/wisdom? 531 Socrates standard is that “men [be] able to give an account and receive one” in order to “know anything of what we say they must know…”? Does anyone meet this standard? 532 What is the journey he calls dialectic? Relate the journey both within the image, and without. 534a How do you separate out the idea of the good? Can you do it? Book VIII Now that the digression is over, and “women must be in common, children and their entire education must be in common, and similarly the practices in war and peace must be in common, and their kings must be those among them who have proved best in philosophy and with respect to war,” both Socrates and Glaucon agree. They are going to return to the “four forms” of regime, and the four forms of men associated with them. What are the four forms? Whence do they arise? 546 Is Socrates classist? What makes someone a part of some class of soul? 550 What are the characteristics of each soul that form that regime? How do these relate with Montesquieu’s division? 559 What is the oligarchic man’s orientation towards pleasure? 559d How do the democratic men come from oligarchic ones? 564a How does tyranny come out of democracy? 571a Who is the tyrannical man? What is he like? 571a Is anyone in the dialogue a tyrannical man? 571b & 580d What are the forms of desires? 574b Again, Zeus– twice. Why are they swearing thus? 578b Why doesn’t the tyrannical man prefer the public life to the private life? 580d What is the threefold division of pleasures? How do these point to parts of the soul? 588 Is wax more moldable than words, or vice versa? Why? 595a Which kinds of poetry are excluded from the just city? Why shouldn’t imitative poetry be admitted? 597a What is the point of the “couch” analogy? There are three couches–how does this advance the argument? 599 Compare 599 with Ion… Is Socrates implying the same thesis as the one Ion agrees to, or something different? 600 Why finish the dialogue–about justice, the good city, the philosopher-king, the tyrannical soul–with a conversation about imitation? 605b Is the “deliberation” spoken about here non-emotional? Is it Christian? 605d What is the danger with personal sorrow, according to the argument? How does it fit into the good life? Is it OK to watch sad TV shows and movies? 607b Socrates describes an “old quarrel between philosophy and poetry”… What compromise does he offer in 607c? 621a Why does the same man who prohibits imitative poetry end his conversation with a myth? 609b Can the soul be destroyed? Can it be harmed? Is justice more beneficial than injustice? 614 Does Er make a good decision?