Exam #3 Study Guide w/ answers

Exam #3 Questions

Quiz Nov 2/3

****SORRY I DON'T HAVE THE ANSWERS TO THE LAST QUIZ*****

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

-If we don’t understand our tools, we will become the tool to our tools.

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

-the formal exactitude of mathematics

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

-b/c he prefers the give-and-take of conversations in which real progress can be made

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

-Socrates

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

-There must be principle behind the decision or it is arbitrary

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

-Aristotle and Plato. School of Athens photo

Quiz Nov 7/8

PG "In the Shadow of the Acropolis"

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

-Imperialist glory; arete

2.  What was the choice of Achilles?

-a short but extraordinary life or a long and ordinary one

3. What was the Axial Age?

-A period of philosophy creating Greeks and other intellectuals that did great thinking. “All moral and religious thought ever since has revolved around it.”

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

-Arete-personal excellence ; Kleos-glory, fame

Does our sense of personal excellence lack glory? Does your idea of the good life lack fame and celebrity status?

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

-Even if a person could get away with wrong doings while maintaining a good rep. due to invisibilty, he shouldn’t do awful things. By destroying arête, you destroy yourself.

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

-A sense of greatness sets the bar. “Isotropic achievements”

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

-“Sprung from the Earth”, always occupied the same land in which they came from.

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

-The context of discovery vs. the context of justification.

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?

-The meme of the selfish gene, self replicating ideas

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

-No

3. What's a MOOC?

-Massive Open Online Course

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

-Control

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

-Pidia, pidiae

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

-Character

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

-INTJ

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

-B/c you don’t know what’s going to happen

Quiz Nov 14/15

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

-How rich they are, diluted about their physical attractiveness, mistaken as in regard to the state of their souls.

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

-That an extraordinary person has the right to do whatever they can get away with

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

-Alcibiades

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

-Nietzsche

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

-By changing/not changing our view of sexual morality

6. What's a daimon?

-Being intermediary between mortals and Gods

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

-Selfless attitude, impersonal approach that if I may die life will go on

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

-To be in love w/ a person is to see all the values we idealize beyond all normal humanity

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

-The beauty of souls is more valuable than that of the body

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

-It is asexual

Nov 16/17 quiz

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

-His ability to shut the world out and focus on what he was thinking about

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

-Indifferent; cynical; antidemocratic

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

-Adriaan Lanni; a Harvard law professor

4. How was Socrates typically insincere?

-In the enthusiasm in which he would greet people about their thoughts then look to trip them up intellectually

5. What does the Euthyprho Dilemma make clear?

-How little the addition of God helps to clarify the ethical situation

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

-Can’t stand the idea that their philosopher didn’t come up w/ philosophy as a whole (idea wise)

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

-The idea you attach to a wider universe. Shrink ego, expand universe

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

-Bullshit

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

-Moral accountability must be an intimate part of that person, arrived @ deliberately , reflected on and chosen and becoming the habitual manifestation of moral character.

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?

==

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?