What is the significance of the figure of Socrates, as Plato presents him in the story of his trial and execution, in The Apology, Crito, and Phaedo? What principles does he stand for? What methods does he employ? What do we learn through the example of Socrates in these dialogues? 2) In Plato’s Republic, Socrates constructs a notion of justice in dialogue with other characters. What are Cephalus’, Polemarchus’, and Thrasymachus’ ideas of justice, as presented in Book 1, and in which ways does Socrates’ notion of justice differ from each of theirs? 3) Provide an account of Plato’s Noble Lie in Book 3 of Republic. What are the larger purposes of this mythos? What can Socrates’ suggestion to use a Noble Lie within the just city teach us about the foundation of regimes, and how human beings might live, in a just way, within political communities? 4) Provide an account of Plato’s three-part schema of the human soul and his threeclass schema of the ideal city. Explain how justice is to be realized, according to Plato, within the soul and the ideal city. What is your opinion of his account? 5) Explain Plato’s doctrine of forms, which describes a two-world metaphysics. What is the significance of this way of understanding reality? Do you find Plato’s account convincing? Why or why not?
