Please write on one of the following topics listed below. Your paper should be approximately 1,200 words in length (4-5 pages, typed, double spaced, 12 point font).
Important: All three answers will require you to have an understanding of Plato’s Theory of the Forms and the tripartite soul.
1. Socrates tries to keep feelings and emotions from interfering with his pursuit of wisdom. Give examples from the dialogues and explain why the desires of the body are so problematic for Plato. In what ways do the desires of the body stem from ignorance? How does Socrates’ solution create tension between philosophy and the city?
2. Socrates is famous for his irony. Point out at least three passages in the dialogues where Socrates is being ironic. How do you square these passages with Socrates’ claim that he is not wise? Euthyphro, on the other hand, does claim to be wise. How does Socrates differ from Euthyphro?
3. In what ways is Socrates both like, and unlike, a Skeptic? In your essay you should focus on Socrates in the Apology and the Euthyphro and compare his speech and his actions to those of the Skeptic as presented by Sextus Empiricus in Outlines of Pyrrhonism. Give specific evidence from the texts for your views. Between Socrates and the Skeptic which, if either, do you think adopts the best attitude towards the world and why?
Your essay should:
-explain appearances (phantasia and pathê in Sextus) and the charge that dogmatists do not live according to them -give examples of what it means to suspend judgment (read: withhold assent - not “don’t be judgmental”)