For
each of the four response papers, you must write at least three typed
and double spaced pages on a topic of your choice that concerns the
material we have covered in the class so far. Do not spend time
summarizing the material, but rather focus on your own thoughts and
questions. You are welcome to use your own life experiences as well as
fictional and nonfictional material from outside class. While you are
welcome to reflect on anything you have found interesting, the following
are possible topics for your response.
1)
In Plato’s earlier dialogues, Socrates questions people to show that,
while we should continue to pursue wisdom and the good, human
understandings are quite limited and we are largely unaware of our
ignorance. In Plato’s later dialogues, Socrates becomes a mouthpiece
for Plato’s own Pythagorean and Eleatic view of the cosmos. Did Plato
betray Socrates, like Diogenes believed? How are skepticism and
dogmatism, questioning and answering, to be put in balance with each
other?
2)
In Plato’s Meno, Socrates leads a boy with no education to solve a
geometric problem, and says that this is because what we call knowledge
is actually recollection from past lives. Given that many are skeptical
of reincarnation, what does this show us about the human mind,
expertise and education? What are we to make of Plato’s caste system in
his Republic if the uneducated can be led to the right answers? Is the
noble lie necessary or not?
3)
In Plato’s Parmenides, Socrates is shown via Eleatic arguments that
human knowledge of reality contains contradictions. Is this always the
case? Is Parmenides wise, or a fool? What does the Parmenides show us
about thought and argument?
