Essay Questions for Republic
BOOK ONE
1. Socrates and Thrasymachus state that it is just to follow what the rulers call law. Does this hold true in a democracy, even if one does not agree with the laws? When is it more just to try to change the law? (Matthew Solomon)
2. Socrates states, “For it is likely that if a city of good men ever came to be, there would be a fight over not ruling” Do not good men inherently wish to live in a just society? Would that not provide incentive for them to take leading roles in the state? (Julie Kim)
3. Even though Thrasymachus deflates quickly, his initial charges against Socrates are compelling. Is it easier to ask than to answer? Is Socrates dodging responsibility for the very answers he is seeking to address? (Evan Smith)
4. Socrates asks about punishment and how it makes people worse. Is this true? Does punishing someone make them better or worse? (Muhammad Tambra)
5. Why does Socrates constantly refer back to examples of the musical man, medical man, horse trainer, etc., to prove his points? Beyond making Thrasymachus contradict himself, do these arguments hold any merit? (Andrew Huang)
6. Do you agree with the statement “injustice, when it comes into being on a sufficient scale, is mightier, freer and more masterful than justice… the just is the advantage of the stronger and the unjust what is profitable and advantageous to oneself?” (Tammuz Huberman)
7. “Human beings who have been harmed necessarily become more unjust.” –Socrates
Do you agree with this statement? If so, what does it mean for our current system of justice, with its brutalizing prisons? How should a government balance its obligations to deter, isolate, and, perhaps, punish criminals without making them “worse with respect to human virtue”? (Esther Schoenfeld)
8. “The just man is happy and the unjust wretched.”
Do you agree with this statement? Can the inherent value of justice really be measured by the happiness it brings men? (Esther Schoenfeld)
9. If one does not believe in God, then does justice matter? (Daniel Frankel)
10. “…unwilling himself to teach, he goes around learning from others…” Is this a fair assessment of Socrates’s motives? (Avril Coley)
11. Socrates states that “no art or kind of rule provides for its own benefit, but… for the one who is ruled.” Does our modern financial system follow this rule? (Claire Littlefield)
12. Do the wealthy and the poor have an equal ability to be content in old age? (Claire Littlefield)
13. Is the question of whether or not a leader is willing [to lead] relevant to their competence in deciding matters of justice? (Michelle Huang)
14. Thrasymachus states that “just is the advantage of the stronger,” claiming that this is true for all forms of government. Is tyranny as just as democracy? Is there a distinction between justice and legitimacy? (Tousif Ahsan)
15. The profitability of justice is discussed as a way of understanding the meaning of justice. Is this a right way to measure use Is justice ever profitable and should justice be decided in terms of profitability? (Paul Lee)
BOOK TWO
1. Is using fantastical arguments (Ring of Gyges) in a philosophical debate valid? (Philip Yuen)
2. “All those who practice it do so unwillingly?” Does no one perform just acts intentionally or are people forced into acting justly? Can forced acts of justice really be considered justice? (Anna Gordan)
3. What harm does Socrates see in allowing the young to hear stories of gods acting unjustly? Is education about finding virtuous role-models to imitate? (Julia Kaplan)
4. “For the extreme of injustice is to seem to be just when one is not.” Why is this so? Can this logic be applied to other concepts like virtue? (Michelle Huang)
5. To what extent can “seeming” overpower the “truth?” (Omika Jikaria)
6. Glaucon says that justice is “a mean between what is best—doing injustice without paying the penalty—and what is worse—suffering injustice without being able to revenge oneself.” Do you agree? Are these reasonable definitions of the best and worst life? (Matthew Solomon)
7. What education can teach a man justice? (Dominika Burek)
8. How do the three types of good apply to the larger society? (Taha Ahsin)
9. Why does Glaucon believe that any man, without surveillance, would behave unjustly? What is the connection between some of our impulses and their prohibition by justice? (Kai Sam Ng)
10. Do you accept Socrates’s assertion that justice is the same in an individual and societal level? Doesn’t Glaucon’s argument seem to imply that the two behave differently? (Claire Littlefield)
11. Why does Socrates submit to further questioning by Glaucon and Adeimantus? Why does he continue the argument after his debate with Thrasymachus? (Tammuz Huberman)
12. Would you be satisfied with the city of necessity? (Henry Lin)
13. Is it okay for some in a society to be unjust for everyone’s greater good? Men like Caesar, Augustus and Charlemagne were not good but beneficial to their people. (Henry Lin)
14. Do people comply with justice due to an inability to overpower the system? (Marley Lindsey)
15. “The unjust man… pursues a thing dependent on truth and does not live in the light of opinion.” Is injustice more true than justice? Do we live our lives merely because we want good reputations? (Esther Schoenfeld)
16. “We must do everything to insure that they [the young] hear first… be the finest told tales [with respect to virtue].” Do you agree with this, considering all the arguments for free speech and press? (Julie Kim)
17. Can you really lead a perfectly unjust live and be happy? What about your conscience? (Cassie Moy)
18. Does Socrates think that it is actually possible to create a society without anger? Is it? (Allegra Wiprud)
19. Socrates and Adeimantus agree that a good city should not allow poets to tell untrue stories about the gods. So you think this is a good idea or a breach of one of our natural rights? (Casey Griffin)
BOOK THREE
1. Is Socrates’s conclusion that “wherever the argument like a wind, tends, thither we must go” legitimate? (Julie Kim)
2. Is it true that some people are born more fit to rule than others? (Phillip Yuen)
3. What do you think of Socrates’s last assertion, that private property is what corrupts the “guardians” of society? Would politicians be less corrupt if they were provided for but never paid? Does such as system make politicians more responsible to the people? (Sarah Kaplan)
4. How does Socrates reconcile his search for absolute truth with censoring things that people can and cannot hear about? (Anna Gordan)
5. Can those who fear death never be courageous? What about troops going to war? Are they not courageous, or do they not fear death? (Anna Gordan)
6. Socrates says, “then the man who makes the finest mixture of gymnastic with music and brings them to his soul in the most proper measure is the one of whom we would most correctly say that he is the most perfectly musical and well harmonized.” Is it better to be a well-balanced person, or to specialize in one area? (Jacob Sunshine)
7. Do you agree with Socrates’s view on medicine and treatment? (Angela Han)
8. The requirements for the guardians’ education seem very rigid. Is Socrates’s Republic a utopian one or a practical one? (Daniel Frankel)
9. Do the “benefits” of censoring art outweigh the tearing down of free speech? (Dominika Burek)
10. Who would you let into your city: the unmixed imitator, the mixed imitator, or the one who does not imitate at all? (Matthew Solomon)
11. Is it beneficial for society to heal the infirm? Should we let them die? Isn’t it a waste because we will all die anyway? (Maaz Tambra)
12. Socrates advocates the sacrifice of individual rights for the benefit of society, including the right to freedom of speech. Are his arguments a precursor to modern totalitarianism? Should he have supported his own conviction in Athens? (Esther Schoenfeld)
13. Do you agree with Socrates that it is justified for rulers to lie in order to protect citizens from enemies or internal disorder? (Esther Schoenfeld)
14. Is it still courageous to fight for the good if you are not choosing to do so, but merely following orders? (Julia Kaplan)
15. Can ridding a society of injustice ensure that anyone born into that society will be just? (Julia Kaplan)
16. How integral is brotherhood to a society? (Taha Ahsin)
17. Can a state as Socrates describes, with each individual allowed only one purpose and occupation, truly meet the personal needs of its citizens? (Claire Littlefield)
18. Does lying have its place in life? (Avril Coley)
19. Is the noble lie fundamentally consistent with the concept of justice? If it is, does that mean that lying is a necessary evil to sustain justice? (Sandesh Kataria)
20. When Glaucon asks whether the guardians should learn smithing, crafts, nautical arts or other activities, Socrates replies, “How could that be, since they won’t even be permitted to pay attention to any of these things?” Socrates seeks to limit the expertise of the guardians in many other areas as well, even in mixed music , gymnastic and fine food. How good a model of leadership can such a limited education provide? (Allegra Wiprud)
BOOK FOUR
1. Do you agree with Socrates that courage is the “preserving of the opinion produced by law through education about what—and what sort of thing—is terrible?” (Casey Griffin)
2. Socrates previously asked for a definition of virtue without breaking it down into facets. How, then, do we treat his virtues of wisdom, courage, moderation and justice? (Evan Smith)
3. Does Socrates neglect a city’s need to adapt to a changing external environment? (Dominika Burek)
4. Do you accept Socrates’s definition of justice? (Avril Coley)
5. Socrates says that “we are not looking to the exceptional happiness of any one group among us but, as far as possible, that of the city as a whole.” The good of the whole has often served as justification for government actions that would normally be considered unjust. Is it valid justification? (Allegra Wiprud)
6. If the values of Greek society were wisdom, courage, moderation and justice, what are the values of our society today? (Maaz Tambra)
7. Would Socrates’s system work today? Could we set up this society and be successful? (Maaz Tambra)
8. Is Socrates’s conception of justice as “minding one’s own business” universal? Can we apply it to our own society? (Esther Schoenfeld)
9. Do you agree that “it’s not by lack of learning, but by knowledge, that men counsel well?” (Tammuz Huberman)
10. We’ve often accepted “progress” and innovation as inevitable, despite possible [negative] consequences. Given the choice, should we quell innovation as Socrates suggests? (Claire Littlefield)
11. Humanity has always aspired to be better than where it is at present. Does such ambition in people make them unjust? (Marley Lindsey)
12. Socrates states, “the regime, once well started, will roll on like a circle in its growth.” After generations of conformity, will the founding principles of the city be forgotten, and the state seen as a hindrance to individual ambitions? Is Socrates’s city doomed? (Julie Kim)
13. Is it possible to ignore innovation and survive? Can a city prosper without it? (Julia Kaplan)
14. Is there truly no place for law making in Socrates’s ideal republic? What if a situation should arise where education is not a sufficiently short-term solution to maintain order? (Andrew Huang)
15. Do you agree with the idea that music is a good measure of political happenings? (Matthew Solomon)
16. Do you agree that “it isn’t worthwhile to dictate to gentlemen?” Can such a society exist? (Angela Han)
17. Is Socrates’s comparison of justice to health reasonable? (Angela Han)
18. To what extent should members of the distinct classes “mind their own business?” Are there circumstances that could arise that would lead to them having to break this convention of justice? (Omika Jikaria)
19. Justice often seems to be oftentimes more of a reaction to injustice and wrongdoing than a standard society strives for. How will justice prevail in an institution that theoretically has no injustice? (Paul Lee)
20. Is an ideal society worth striving for? Would people be as motivated to work to their fullest potential—no matter their profession—if their society is perfect? (Sharada Sridhar)
21. Can a city be happy if the individuals within it are not happy? (Sarah Kaplan)
22. Can wealth and poverty only corrupt? Do they not have benefits that may match their shortcomings? (Michael Huang)
23. In Book III, Socrates says that the best doctors are those who have experienced illness themselves. Then why are the best guardians not the ones who know tragedy? (Anna Gordan)
24. Socrates himself asserts that his execution was an outcome “not of laws, but of men.” Would this sentiment dissuade him from entrusting public policy to the guardians? (Tousif Ahsan)
25. How would the republic function among other non-ideal societies? (Michelle Huang)
BOOK FIVE
1. Would individuals still be inclined to care for some people more than others in an absence of an awareness of family? (Claire Littlefield)
2. Can any individual justly hold the power to decide who lives and who dies? Does the wisdom of the guardians give them this right? (Claire Littlefield)
3. Do you agree with Socrates that “he is empty who believes anything is ridiculous other than the bad, and who tries to produce laughter looking to any other sight as ridiculous other than the sight of the foolish and the bad; or, again, he who looks seriously to any standard of beauty he sets up other than the good?” (Casey Griffin)
4. As a woman, would you want to have children in this society? (Casey Griffin)
5. Is philosophy the key to resolving all issues that plague society? (Paul Lee)
6. Eugenics gets a bum rap but would it not be better for society overall? (Maaz Tambra)
7. Should all rulers philosophize? (Michael Huang)
8. Is Socrates losing sight of the just with his ever longer “throng of lies and deceptions for the benefit of the ruled?” (Julie Kim)
9. Is opinion truly that which is “between ignorance and knowledge?” (Julie Kim)
10. How progressive is the Republic with regards to the treatment of women? (Michelle Huang)
11. Could corruption be totally abolished by the removal of personal property, wealth and family? (Angela Han)
12. Why is it that what the “urbane make a comedy of” eventually becomes accepted by society? (Angela Han)
13. Does exposing young children first-hand to the horrors of war make them grow up to be better warriors? (Julia Kaplan)
14. What is the difference between honoring beauty and honoring beautiful things? (Allegra Wiprud)
15. Does paternalism have a place in society? (Allegra Wiprud)
16. Are any means of controlling a population’s growth ever just? (Daniel Frankel)
17. Can a person be a productive member of society without procreating? (Daniel Frankel)
18. If people only delight in “fair sounds and colors and shapes.” how can we be sure there is a real “nature of the fair itself?” (Marley Lindsey)
19. Socrates breaks up thought and existence into three categories: that which is and can be known, that which is not and can never be known, and that which falls in between the two and is a matter of opinion. What implications does this have for many of our societal implications—religion in particular? (Sarah Kaplan)
20. Socrates seems to think that philosophers will rule most according to the city’s best interest. Who rules in our society? If we elected [or selected] philosophers, would our society be better off? (Sarah Kaplan)
21. Do you think that the way Socrates assigns value to individual lives is unethical? (Sarah Kaplan)
BOOK SIX
1. Are people born with a quickness of learning and love of intellect or does it develop due to the circumstances around them? (Nadia Hossain)
2. Would Socrates consider himself one of the candidates for philosopher-king? (Nadia Hossain)
3. Socrates implies that someone “endowed with magnificence and the contemplation of all time and all being” could not possibly think human life is anything great. Do you agree? (Casey Griffin)
4. Socrates says that philosophers are only useless because the many don’t use them. Do you think this is a valid argument or is the duty of any person to make themselves useful? (Casey Griffin)
5. Is Adeimantus’s critique of the dialectic compelling? When pursuing truth, is the part greater than the sum of its parts? (Claire Littlefield)
6. Does democracy force leaders to focus more on taking the rudder than on gazing at the stars? Are American politicians prevented from making good choices by political considerations? (Claire Littlefield)
7. Is number truly superior to object? (Maaz Tambra)
8. Socrates endorses the general over the particular but uses particulars to pick apart the arguments of his opponents. Is this fair? (Evan Smith)
9. If we cannot define the good, how can we define things in the name of the good? (Avril Coley)
10. Do you think that intellectuals or passionate (erotic) people and quiet folk can’t live harmoniously, but that one group is continually trying to dominate the other? Is this reflected in Stuyvesant? (Allegra Wiprud)
11. Is good pleasure or prudence? (Allegra Wiprud)
12. Can we ever truly see what is, or is Socrates right in saying that we can only perceive or “intellect” it? (Allegra Wiprud)
13. Is it true that “many men would chose to do, possess, and even enjoy the reputation for things that are opined to be just and fair, even if they aren’t?” Does Socrates give too little consideration to men who wouldn’t choose to do so? (Julie Kim)
14. Is our current society the end of the road morally? Is moral progression linear? Is it an asymptote that we are incredibly close to but can’t reach? (Henry Lin)
15. Are philosophers useless? Is Socrates’s argument substantial? (Tammuz Huberman)
16. Do you buy Socrates’s argument that bad societies will corrupt philosophers? Are philosophers truly defenseless against the excesses of popularity? (Kai Sam Ng)
17. Can the masses ever appreciate beauty and wisdom? Why is everything dumbed down for the majority? (Daniel Frankel)
18. Socrates disdains the masses for believing that good is subjective; that it is maximization of pleasure. Is the good objective or subjective? Can we have objective good without God? (Esther Schoenfeld)
19. Socrates claims that the good is more important than justice. Do you agree? Can the good and justice come into conflict? (Esther Schoenfeld)
20. Socrates claims that those who are most fit to rule are considered useless to society. Does this mean that modern democratic societies tend to elect officials that are in fact the most useless and unfit to rule? (Tousif Ahsan)
21. Socrates is critical of the people who only look at the particulars. Is this view necessarily detrimental to a society that inhabits the visible realm of the particulars? (Tousif Ahsan)
22. Socrates says that the philosopher is one who by nature loves and seeks after the truth. He also says that the philosopher can know no lie. In today’s world, can there be any true philosophers? (Paul Lee)
23. Is the state’s function for the sake of the philosopher, or the philosopher’s function for the sake of the state? (Jacob Sunshine)
24. “He applies all these names following the great animal’s opinions—calling what delights it good and what vexes it bad.” By what other standard could we deem actions good or bad ? (Marley Lindsey)
25. Do you agree with Socrates’s implication that education is the only determinant of whether a soul becomes good or bad? (Matthew Solomon)
26. “It is necessary for those … who need to be ruled to go to the doors of the man who is able to rule, not for the ruler who is truly of any use to beg the ruled to be ruled.” What implications does this have for a democracy? Is power a privilege to be earned, or a burden taken up at the request of the ruled? (Sarah Kaplan)
27. “The man who is really a lover of learning must from youth on strive as intensely as possible for every kind of truth.” How can Socrates reconcile this with the lies he would have told to the citizens of his city about their origins and their natures? (Sarah Kaplan)
28. Do you agree that it’s impossible for “the multitude” to be philosophic? (Sarah Kaplan)
BOOK SEVEN
1. In our society, who are the prisoners of the cave and what is the equivalent of the sunlight? (Daniel Frankel)
2. Is it possible to get children to want to go to school un-slavishly? (Taha Ahsin)
3. Is the truth that humans comprehend really “nothing other than the shadows of artificial things?” (Jacob Sunshine)
4. Is Socrates’s cave metaphor valid in a society where there is abundant information? Is our problem a lack of understanding or a lack of the will to be understood? (Tousif Ahsan)
5. Is education really like the cave metaphor? Is it that hard to get accustomed to truth? Is it that hard to go back to ignorance? (Matthew Solomon)
6. “An older man however, wouldn’t be willing to participate in such madness.” Do you agree that an older person is more suited to philosophize than a younger person? (Matthew Solomon)
7. Plato defines the goal of education as turning the individual toward the light, not putting knowledge into peoples’ heads. Would he be satisfied with our education system? If not, how would he change it? (Claire Littlefield)
8. Is democracy capable of placing societal good above individual good? (Claire Littlefield)
9. Do you agree that being is more important than becoming? (Julia Kaplan)
10. Socrates believes in turning the education of philosopher kings to-be into a form of play since it is often a characteristic of human nature to comprehend what is not compulsory better. Is this valid? (Omika Jikaria)
11. Is math really universal? Do you agree that understanding numbers is necessary to grasp higher truths? (Sarah Kaplan)
12. Do you agree that the tangible, visible world is of little importance? (Sarah Kaplan)
13. Innovation was involved in the creation of math? How would Socrates balance his discouragement of innovation and devout belief in math? (Sharada Sridhar)
14. Do we do EVERYTHING for individual happiness? (Maaz Tambra)
15. “But men who aren’t lovers of ruling must go to it; otherwise rival lovers will fight.” How would the existence of philosopher-kings prevent others from loving power? (Cassie Moy)
16. Could a government completely devoid of faction rule effectively today? (Andrew Huang)
17. Do you agree that “if you discover a life better than ruling for those who are going to rule, it is possible your well-governed city will come into being?” (Tammuz Huberman)
18. Can dialectic be dangerous? (Esther Schoenfeld)
19. Is it possible to find the truth “by discussion—by means of argument without the use of any of the senses?” (Esther Schoenfeld)
20. If we all agree on the shadows’ meaning, is it that bad to just live with them without finding their true meaning? Is finding the truth that valuable? (Avril Coley)
21. Do you think it is fair to give the guardians a “worse life when a better is possible for them?” (Casey Griffin)
22. America is almost the antithesis of Socrates’s Republic—does its success mean that Socrates is wrong? (Henry Lin)
23. Socrates spends a lot of time discovering things that are good or serve the good, yet has so far not addressed the good itself. What is it? (Allegra Wiprud)
24. Socrates says that “according to the way [power] is turned, it becomes useful and helpful or useless and harmful… if this part of [one’s] nature were trimmed in earliest childhood,” people would become better reasoners and leaders. Are people born with the ability or inclination to do ill? (Allegra Wiprud)
BOOK EIGHT
CENTRAL QUESTIONS
1. How does Socrates reconcile the conclusion that democracies become unjust tyrannies with his belief that his ideal Republic can be achieved by deceiving, and ultimately controlling, the masses? (Julie Kim)
2. Is democracy the ultimate relativist government? (Jacob Sunshine)
3. Why does Socrates hate democracy so much? Does democracy carry peace or turmoil? (Daniel Frankel)
4. “He doesn’t admit true speech or let it pass into the guardhouse if someone says that there are some pleasures belonging to fine and good desires and some belonging to bad desires and that the ones must be practiced and honored and the others checked and enslaved.” Can desires and intent be simplified into good and bad? Are these human features more complex than that? (Taha Ahsin)
5. If it will just fail, why go to the trouble of creating an ideal society? (Marley Lindsey)
6. Is this degeneration of regimes reversible? Has history not proved that tyrannies may change into democracies? (Michael Huang)
7. Do you agree with Socrates’s description of the democratic man? Is doing whatever pleases one at that exact moment a bad thing? Is it a bad idea to live your life without purpose? (Matthew Solomon)
8. “Too much freedom seems to change into nothing but too much slavery, both for private man and city.” Do you agree? Do we dislike the idea of living in Plato’s Republic because we love freedom too much? (Cassie Moy)
9. According to Socrates. The critical flaw of a democracy—the flaw that dooms it to collapse is that it is excessively free. Is this true? How free are democracies? (Esther Schoenfeld)
10. Socrates says that one of the problems the state will have over time is that it will become two cities, one for the rich and one for the poor. Why does this cause a greater problem than when Socrates divides his original city into the ruling philosopher class and the working class? (Nadia Hossain)
11. Do you think Socrates is right that in a democracy, the teachers fawn on their students and the elderly come down to the level of the young? And is this a bad thing? (Casey Griffin)
INTERESTING QUESTIONS
12. Nothing lasts forever, but is Plato’s theory of a city’s progression valid today? (Daniel Frankel)
13. Does the path of degeneration of a city mean the United States is doomed to result in a tyrannical government? (Anna Gordan)
14. Is it true that “when wealth and the wealthy are honored in a city, virtue and the good man are less honorable?” Can one man be wealthy, virtuous and honorable? (Anna Gordan)
15. Do you agree “that in a city where you see beggars, somewhere in the neighborhood thieves… and craftsmen of all such evils are hidden?” Does this hold true for New York City? Why are there so many beggars? (Anna Gordan)
16. Do you agree that “virtue [is] in tension with wealth, as though each were lying in the scale of a balance, always inclining in opposite directions?” Is it impossible to have wealth/try to gain great wealth and still be virtuous? Does this mean that capitalism is lacking in all virtue? (Matthew Solomon)
17. Do we, as Americans, call “insolence, good education; anarchy, freedom; wastefulness, magnificence; and shamelessness, courage?” (Kai Sam Ng)
18. Socrates says that as the love of money and wealth grows in a society, the constitution will change so that ruling is based entirely on wealth. Is this true in America, a country considered to be the wealthiest in the world? (Angela Han)
BOOK NINE
Central Questions
1. Do you agree with Socrates’s condemnation of pleasure as absence of pain and vice versa? Why can't the life of repose be equally fulfilling as the life of full pleasure? (Andrew Huang)
2. The soul under tyranny, “always forcibly drawn by a gadfly… will be full of confusion and regret.” Socrates has previously called himself the necessary gadfly of Athens. How would he (or we) answer this dichotomy? (Allegra Wiprud)
3. Is it fair of Socrates to say that “some terrible, savage and lawless form of desires is in every man?” (Tammuz Huberman)
4. 729 times better? Probably not meant to be taken seriously, but is the just life exponentially better than the unjust life? (Cassie Moy)
5. Socrates attributes all good to the “calculating, came, and ruling part” of our natures, and all evil desires to base instincts. Can evil comes from reason? Can good comes from strong emotions (like love, that has “from old been called a tyrant”)? (Claire Littlefield)
6. Do you agree with Socrates that “complete hostility to law” is equivalent to “complete freedom?” (Casey Griffin)
7. Do you agree that “a man is like his city”; that the soul of a person who lives under tyranny necessarily is “filled with much slavery and illiberality? (Esther Schoenfeld)
8. Do you agree that a tyrannical man who is given the opportunity to rule—with all the wealth and prestige that comes with ruling—is worse off than a man who lives a tyrannic life in private? (Esther Schoenfeld)
9. Socrates mentions that there are three types of humans in the world: those who are truth-loving, those who are honor-loving and those who are profit-loving. Is it possible for there to be a human being who possesses more than one of these traits? Will that human be happy? (Omika Jikaria)
10. Does the analysis that Socrates gives us really prove that the perfectly just man lives a better life than the perfectly unjust man? If the Ring of Gyges allows the unjust man cannot be caught and his acts, does he still have to fear retribution? (Anna Gordan)
11. If given a choice, would you lead the life of a rich and powerful tyrant or a poor but just philosopher? (Maaz Tambra)
12. Though erotic love is condemned because it can lead one to pursue idle desires, did we not also establish that it is also required for the lover of knowledge to pursue truth? Does not Socrates himself exemplified this? (Julie Kim)
13. Does Socrates make a convincing argument that the evils which a political tyrant may face (paranoia, envy, isolation) far outweigh the pleasures of ruling and power? (Julie Kim)
14. Is the just man more content with life than a tyrant? (Daniel Frankel)
15. Is it fair to consider the tyrant a philosopher gone bad? (Marley Lindsey)
16. Socrates says that “a man becomes tyrannic in a precise sense one, either by nature or by his practices or bolts, he has become drunken, erotic, and melancholic.” According to the notes, melancholy is an attribute of most exceptional men, including philosophers. So could philosophers become tyrants, since they have erotic desire to learn and are melancholic? (Angela Han)
17. Is there really that much of a difference between the Republic and tyranny? Should we consider them to be on opposite ends of the virtue spectrum? (Matthew Solomon)
18. Can pleasure exist without pain? (Avril Coley)
Interesting Questions
19. Do the extravagant desires of our society today contain the conditions necessary for the genesis of the tyrannical man? (Andrew Huang)
20. Does philosophic pleasure, indeed, the only real pleasure according to Socrates, exist in our relativistic society? (Kai Sam Ng)
21. How can a decent side of a soul overwhelm the tyrannical side? (Dominika Burek)
22. Do you agree that wisdom is a superior virtue to courage and wealth? Which of the three do you think American society honors the lowest? (Sarah Kaplan)
23. “those that wake and sleep when the rest of the soul slumbers, while the beastly and wild part… is skittish… it dares to do everything as though it were released from… all shame and prudence. And it doesn't shrink from attempting intercourse… with a mother or anyone else at all-human beings, gods, and beasts... And, in a word, it omits no act of folly or shamelessness.” Is this a precursor to Freudian thought? (Jacob Sunshine)
24. Are we all naturally inclined to become tyrants? (Daniel Frankel)
25. How is Plato's assertion that happiness comes from understanding the form of the Good similar to the religious assertion that happiness comes from understanding God? (Tousif Ahsan)
26. Do our dreams define our desires? (Angela Han)
BOOK TEN
CENTRAL QUESTIONS
1. How does Socrates’s example of three types of couches translate to ideas such as justice or virtue? What would be the secondary form of these? (Avril Coley)
2. Is it a person’s fault if they lead an unjust life? (Maaz Tambra)
3. Do the “forms” exist outside human thought? Can knowledge exist independent of man’s of man’s understanding of it? (Sarah Kaplan)
4. Do you agree that “the part [of the soul] which trusts measure and calculation would be the best part of the soul?” If not, which is the part of the soul that should be listened to in the pursuit of a good and just life? (Julia Kaplan)
5. At the end of the day, would you follow Socrates and “keep to the upper road and practice justice with prudence?” Has justice finally become objective? (Marley Lindsay)
6. Is Socrates’s argument against imitation valid? Is imitation really bad? (Matthew Solomon)
7. Is the end of Republic satisfying? Is the reader left content? (Tammuz Huberman)
8. The Republic ends by talking about an immortal soul and the afterlife as a final justification for living a just life. If you don’t believe in an afterlife of any kind, do Socrates’s arguments still hold power? (Casey Griffin)
INTERESTING QUESTIONS
9. Socrates clearly dislikes poets strongly. Who are the “poets” in our society? How do we view them? (Omika Jikaria)
10. Socrates says he would be happy to allow the poets back into the city if anyone could come up with a valid argument. Do you accept the challenge? (Maaz Tambra)
11. Like the myth of Er, is it okay to pursue a just life in order to receive an award? (Angela Han)
12. Are we less willing to do “the right thing” when nobody is watching? How much do we respect justice, virtue, and courage? (Allegra Wiprud)