University of California Week 6 The Theory of Forms Platos Republic Discussion
Question Description
On the second page of this pdf there are 5 ques-
tions. Answer each of these 5 questions writing 8-12 pages in total (double-
spaced, 12pt font). Do not go over 12 pages. Be as complete and concise
as possible. Do not preface your answers with superfluous introductory re-
marks: in each of your responses, simply answer the exact questions asked.
1. As conceptualized by Plato, what sort of entities are Forms? What it
is for something to participate in a Form?
2. A philosophical interpretation of Platos Republic VII Allegory of the
Cave should answer at least the following questions: What philosoph-
ical issue (or issues) is the Allegory of the Cave, in the first instance,
about? What are the central and most important philosophical claims
regarding this issue (these issues) that Plato uses the Allegory of the
Cave to communicate? What are the allegorys various symbolic el-
ements supposed to represent? Appealing to textual evidence from
within the Republic, explain and defend a philosophical interpretation
of Platos Allegory of the Cave.
3. Of the non-just psychic constitutions discussed in Republic VIII-IX, the
most thoroughly unjust psychic constitution among them is said to be
that of a tyrannical psyche [psuch ?e]. Analyze and explain Socrates
case that its bad for a human being to be unjust in the distinctive way
that a person with a tyrannical psyche is unjust.
4. Submit the four clearest and most instructive examples you can think
of to respectively illustrate Aristotles conceptions of (i) material, (ii)
formal, (iii) efficient, and (iv) final causation. For each of the four
examples you submit, write 1-3 sentences explaining why the example
in question does in fact exemplify the variety of causation in question.
The examples should be your ownnot Aristotles and not ones dis-
cussed in lecture or discussion section.2
5. Analyze and explain Aristotles De Anima II.1 account of what makes
something a soul [psuch ?e]. What, on this account, is the relationship
between (i) an embodied soul, (ii) the living organism in which its
embodied, and (iii) the matter of that living organism.
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