Great Questions on Plato's Meno
1. Is ignorance bliss (in trying to understand the foundations of life)? Would
people be better off ignoring the supposed meaning of life, or looking for the
meaning of life, and just do what they want? (Matthew Solomon)
2. Does Socrates engage in this dialogue to toy with Meno (and Meno’s teacher)
or does he sincerely believe something will come out of this interaction? And if
Socrates is just trying to take Meno down a peg, why does Plato even document
the exchange? (Sharada Srishar)
3. Socrates often wins exchanges by asking a series of loaded questions rather
than putting forward his won views. Is this a valid form of debate? (Henry Lin)
4. Are there truly no teachers of virtue? (Henry Lin)
5. Since Socrates seeks to find truth through cognitive dissonance, does this
imply that he disputes the very fundamentals of Athenian thought as laid out by
Pericles? (Tousif Ahsan)
6. How is virtue different from concrete concepts like math? Is it different?
Can they be compared? (Michelle Huang)
7. Socrates says, “[M]en become good and useful to states, not only because they
have knowledge, but because they have the right opinion.” Can a man be useful to
the state without either of these things? What is the “right” opinion? Does this
quote create a framework for parties and factionalism? (Jacob Sunshine)
8. Meno asks Socrates if “that what we call learning is only a process of
recollection.” Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Do you think
Socrates’s numerical proof of this was effective? Why? (Tammuz Huberman)
9. Why does Socrates think that virtue is singular and cannot be composed of
multiple things? (Sandesh Kataria)
10. Does the conclusion that Socrates comes to differ from the one the reader is
expected to make and how so? What is each conclusion? (Dominika Burek)
11. The dialogue comes to no conclusion, but what can be learned from reading
it? (Julia Kaplan)
12. What possible relation could there be between simple geometry and life’s
persistent questions? (Marley Lindsey)
13. How would you answer Socrates’s request for a unified definition of virtue?
(Claire Littlefield)
14. Do you agree with Socrates’s assertion that all men desire to be good?
(Claire Littlefield)
Great Questions on the Plato's Apology of Socrates
1. Did Socrates defend himself effectively? Why does the jury find him guilty
despite his logical superiority? (Andrew Huang)
2. “The hour of departure has arrived and we go our ways—I to die, and you to
live. Which is better only God know.” Given his last words, and this trial, what
do you think is the better way? (Marley Lindsey)
3. Socrates is accused of corrupting the youth. Can the truth be corrupting?
(Cassie Moy)
4. “He who will really fight for the right… must have a private station and not
a public one.” Is this true? What does this say about Socrates’s views on
democracy? (Esther Schoenfeld)
5. According to Socrates, the meaning of life is “searching into myself and
other men,” even though this means that he has “no time to give either to any
public matter of interest” and lives “in utter poverty.” Do you agree that
philosophical inquiry should be pursued at the expense of a comfortable
existence and a part in public life? Are they mutually exclusive? (Esther
Schoenfeld)
6. Socrates says “Wisdom of men is little or nothing.” Do you agree with this
statement? (Tammuz Huberman)
7. Socrates does not seem to be arguing to the best of his ability, he is
focusing more on stating his opinions than appealing for his innocence. Is
Socrates right to do what he feels is honorable all the time, or is it better to
act dishonorably sometimes in order to gain a good life? (Casey Griffin)
8. Is Socrates’s devotion to the gods sincere, or merely a rhetorical device to
represent service to a higher power? (Claire Littlefield)
9. Is Socrates’s philosophic goal worth dying for? (Claire Littlefield)
10. How does Plato seek to win over the reading audience if not the court
audience? (Allegra Wiprud)
11. Is it Socrates’s pride or his ethics that prevent him from pleading more
desperately for his life? (Allegra Wiprud)
12. Socrates says “For if you think that by killing men you can avoid the
accuser censuring your lives, you are mistaken; that is not a way of escape
which is either possible or honorable; the easiest and noblest way is not to be
crushing others, but to be improving yourselves.” This statement almost seems to
be a commonly held value and belief in our society today. In Socrates’s time,
this clearly was not the case. What influence does our time period have on this
view? (Omika Jikaria)
13. Is there virtue in being a martyr? (Julia Kaplan)
14. Is Socrates’s appeal to the Athenian people a testament to his faith in
democracy or his lack thereof? (Tousif Ahsan)
15. What do you think of the statement “the life which is unexamined is not
worth living”? (Sarah Kaplan)
16. Is Socrates’s stripping men of their illusions a crime? Are men better off
deluded but certain of who they are and what they’re meant to do, or conscious
of their ignorance but untethered by any sense of morals and greater purpose?
(Sarah Kaplan)
17. Do you agree with Socrates that a “gadfly” is a gift from God to a
democracy? Are gadflies like Socrates necessary to keep democracies honest?
(Sarah Kaplan)
Great Questions on the Plato's Crito
1. Does a man enter into a social contract with a state simply by living within
it? (Jacob Sunshine)
2. What does it mean to be a “victim, not of laws, but of men?” (Michael Huang)
3. Would Socrates be considered a patriot by modern standards? (Henry Lin)
4. Is it okay to oppose the laws the state has created if one does not think the
law is right? (Angela Han)
5. Are democracies logical? Is deference to the majority the most rational way
to make a decision? (Daniel Frankel)
6. Would you rather have a friend sleep in an ignorant blissful slumber, or
awaken them to the reality of life? (Marley Lindsey)
7. Should a fear of public-image really be a strong motivational factor? Is
caring what other people think a good way to live life? (Marley Lindsey)
8. Is Socrates right in saying that “country is more to be valued and higher and
holier far than mother or father or any ancestor?” Does that apply in a
democracy? Did it really apply in Athens? (Evan Smith)
9. Is Socrates too obsessed with the truth? Are there times when it may be
better to ignore the truth? (Avril Coley)
10. Socrates says, “Good men… are the only persons who are worth considering.”
Do you agree with this statement? (Tammuz Huberman)
11. In a democracy, what is our obligation when our personal ideas about right
and wrong conflict with those of the state? If right and wrong are objective
truths, how can we accept majority rule on moral issues like abortion and war?
(Esther Schoenfeld)
12. Does Crito’s reminder of Socrates’s children change your view of Socrates’s
decision not to escape? Do you agree with Crito’s claim that Socrates is
betraying them? (Claire Littlefield)
13. Many would agree with Socrates that the opinions of the wise are worth more
than those of the many, yet also believe in democracy. How does Socrates resolve
this contradiction? How do we? (Claire Littlefield)