Exam #3 Questions

Quiz Nov 2/3

1. Why was Plato so eager for a Googleplex tour? (Why did he think it so important to "understand our tools"?

2. What does Plato say lies beneath all perfection and beauty?

3. Why does Plato say he's always written "with the greatest misgivings"?

4. What was the subject of Plato's first search?

5. What renders an ethical decision non-arbitrary, according to Plato?

6. Who were the two guys in togas on the Googlers' t-shirts?

Quiz Nov 7/8

PG "In the Shadow of the Acropolis"

1. What thoughts and feelings was the Parthenon intended to evoke?

2.  What was the choice of Achilles?

3. What was the Axial Age?

4. What does it mean to say that your arete lacks kleos?

5. What is Plato's argument in the myth of the Ring of Gyges?

6. What "sets the bar" for the ideal of the "Renaissance man"?

7. What does it mean to be "autochthonous"? 

8. What useful distinction does Goldstein borrow from Hans Reichenbach?

Quiz Nov 9/10

"Plato at the 92d Street Y"

1. What meme isn't required to remind us that every generation wants their children to do well?

2. Is Plato's ideal polis a true republic?

3. What's a MOOC?

4. What's the "essence of freedom" according to Plato?

5. What are the Greek words for play and education?

6. What does Plato want to measure in candidates for future leadership rather than IQ?

7. What kind of person was Plato, according to the Myers-Briggs test?

8. Why shouldn't we fear death, according to Plato?

Quiz Nov 14/15

1. In what three ways do we most often fail to know ourselves, according to Plato/Socrates?

2. What antisocial conclusion is embodied by Thrasymachus and Callicles?

3. Who does Goldstein describe as a composite of JFK, Trump, Petraeus, Muhammad Ali, Julian Assange and others?

4. What 19th century philosophical classic was anticipated by Alcibiades?

5. How does "the glory that was Greece" challenge our core values?

6. What's a daimon?

7. What state or attitude does Plato consider paradigmatically philosophical?

8. What's the characteristic delusion of interpersonal love, according to Plato?

9. When and why does Plato say people should be content in relationships with those they find less physically attractive than others?

10. What does Plato find confusing about modern "Platonic love"?

Nov 16/17 quiz

1. What "oddity" enabled Socrates to ignore the political upheavals racking his city?

2. What was Socrates' attitude towards the politics of his day? OR, What was the point of his inquiries?

3. Who in our time help us appreciate the difficulties of the ancient Athenians in the face of Socrates' questions?

4. How was Socrates typically insincere?

5. What does the Euthyprho Dilemma make clear?

6. What danger faces contemporary philosophers who specialize in just one historical figure (Kant, Wittgenstein, Heidegger...)?

7. How can humans achieve a "less Christian and more Greek" form of immortality?

8. What did contemporary philosopher Harry Frankfurt discuss with Jon Stewart on The Daily Show?

9. What belief about moral accountability did Kant share with Plato?

Quiz Nov 21/22

1. What does Plato prefer to convictions?

2. What is Plato's mathematical explanation of the tides?

3. Why does Plato worry about having undue influence?

4. What does Plato consider one of the great paradoxes of pleasure?

5. What is the elenctic method?

6. What was Blaise Pascal's slogan?

7. How is a just person like a just polis?

8. Where must all explanations stop, for Plato?

9. Goldstein's Plato teaches us what?

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AND, from "Plato in the Magnet"-

• What were Benjamin Libet's experimental research results, and what are some criticisms of it?
• What does "Agatha" say she'd trade free will for? Does Plato agree or disagree?