University of California Week 6 The Theory of Forms Platos Republic Discussion

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 Plato’s 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 allegory’s various symbolic el-

ements supposed to represent? Appealing to textual evidence from

within the Republic, explain and defend a philosophical interpretation

of Plato’s 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 it’s 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 Aristotle’s 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 own—not Aristotle’s and not ones dis-

cussed in lecture or discussion section.2

5. Analyze and explain Aristotle’s 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 it’s

embodied, and (iii) the matter of that living organism.