Review Guide for Plato Exam #2
1. Who are the characters in the Theaetetus, what are their expertises, and
why is that significant given what the dialogue is about?
2. What do we know about Theaetetus' moral character and how is that relevant to the
dialogue as a whole?
3. ESSAY: Discuss at length the theme of the
one and the many as it plays out in the Theaetetus.
4. Who is Socrates' mother, what does her name mean, what is her art (149a), and how is
that significant in the dialogue? (e.g. 210b-d)
5. What is Theaetetus' first definition of what knowledge is? (151e)
6. ESSAY: Explain Protagoras' "Man is the Measure"
doctrine. How is this view related to coming to be?
7. What are the three metaphysical principles Socrates lays down at 155a?
8. Explain Socrates' interpretation of the Protagorean account of how active and passive
motions interact to produce sensory experience. (156a-157c)
9. Describe Socrates' modus tollens argument at 157e-158a that Protagorean
Relativism is false.
10. What does Socrates deny at 161a-b? Why is this significant in this dialogue?
11. Describe Socrates' criticisms of Protagorean Relativism at 161c-162e.
12. Explain Socrates' defense of Protagorean Relativism at 166d.
13. Describe Socrates' account of the requirements of dialectic and how dialectic differs
from eristic at 167e-168b.
14. Present Socrates' extended argument against Protagorean Relativism at (6 steps from
170a-172b; two more steps at 178b-179a).
15. ESSAY: Explain Socrates' digression on the "two
types" (the philosopher of leisure and the worldly-wise man), relate the story about
Thales. What is the significance of this digression and this story in this dialogue?
What is its significance in the Platonic corpus generally? (173d-174a)
16. Explain Socrates' idea about the importance of emulating god. (176a-c)
17. Why does the discussion turn to the topic of Heraclitus and his "All is
Motion" doctrine?
18. What is Socrates' account of the function of bodily senses? (184b-185d)
19. What is Theaetetus' second definition of what knowledge is? (187b and 200e)
20. Why does the discussion turn to investigating what false judgment is?
21. Present Socrates' First Argument about false judgment. (188a-c)
22. Present Socrates' Second Argument about false judgment. (188e-189b)
23. What does Socrates conclude about these two arguments? (189b)
24. Explain Socrates' account of false judgment as a kind of "other-judging."
(189c)
25. For what reasons does Socrates reject the thesis that false judgment is
"other-judging"? (190d-e)
26. What are the three different ways in which false judgment arises? (192c-d)
27. Describe the analogy or simile that Socrates uses to describe how perception leads to
judgment (193c-194e).
28. Describe the second analogy (simile) Socrates uses to describe how knowledge works
(197b-e).
29. Explain Socrates' distinction between possessing knowledge and having
knowledge. (199a-b)
30. What is the third definition of knowledge examined? (201d)
31. What is the example of letters (elements) and syllables (complexes) meant to show?
(201e-206b)
32. How are elements learned? How are complexes learned? (206b)
33. What three meanings of "account" (logos) are given at 208c?
34. What is the conclusion about knowledge at 210b?
35. Who are the characters in the Sophist and what role does each play in the
dialogue?
36. ESSAY: Who is the Philosopher? Is
the Philosopher identified and/or defined in the trilogy of Theaetetus, Sophist,
Statesman? If so, how? (253c, 254a, etc.)
37. Who is said to be divine, but not a god at 216b?
38. What impression do philosophers give? (216c)
39. Does Socrates think sophists, statesmen, and philosophers are one, two, or three kinds
of things? (217a) What do others think? (217b) What do you think Plato
thinks? Explain.
40. Why does the investigation begin with the angler? (218d)
41. Explain the categories by which the angler is defined through the method of division.
42. ESSAY: Explain the various attempts at defining, through
the method of division, the sophist.
43. What analogy or simile is applied to the difference between the sophist
and the practitioner of elenchus? (231a)
44. How is the sophist characterized at 234e-235b?
45. ESSAY: Describe the method of collection and division.
How does it work? What are its strengths as a philosophical technique?
What are its weaknesses?
46. Why is it impossible to say or think that which is not correctly by itself?
(237a-238c)
47. How does imitation (likeness) relate to what is and that which is not?
48. Explain the idea of the patricide of Parmenides (241d). Why does the discussion
turn to that?
49. ESSAY: Discuss at length the theme of the one
and the many as it plays out in the Sophist. (e.g. 251a-b,
253d-e)
50. What is the battle of giants and gods an analogy for? (246a-b) Is Dr. Brown a
giant or a god?
51. Who is it better to discuss Being and Not-being with and why? (246c)
52. What does capacity have to do with those which are? (247e)
53. Present the argument that Being neither changes nor rests (250a-c).
54. Present the argument that Some Things Blend and Some Do Not (251e-252e).
55. Present the argument that Being and Not-being are not contraries (256e-257b).
56. How does the Different relate to Being and Not-being? (259a)
57. ESSAY: Discuss the importance of the metaphor of weaving
in the Sophist (259e) and the Statesman (279a-282b and many other
texts).
58. What is speech? What is truth? What is falsity? (260a-262e)
59. What is thought? (263e) What is belief? (264a)
60. What are the two types of expertise? (265a) What are the two types of
production? (265b)
61. What two different things can be produced? (266a) Give examples of both groups.
62. How is the definition of the sophist through the method of division completed?
(266d-268d)
63. Who are the characters in the Statesman and what role does each play in
the dialogue?
64. What are the two main types of expertise/knowledge? (258d)
65. What is the initial definition of the statesman through the method of division?
(259-267c)
66. Describe the "playful story" digression in the Statesman
(268d-274e). What is its purpose in the dialogue as a whole?
67. Who was more fortunate, the Cronusian namuhs or the Zeusian humans and why? (272b-c)
68. Why does the discussion turn to the topic of models? (277d-279b)
69. What are the two great sorts of expertise in every sphere? (282b)
70. What are the two parts of measurement? (283d) Why is the latter
part so important?
71. What is the purpose of the inquiry into the statesman? (285d)
72. Distinct from the art of statesmanship, what are the seven sorts of expertise that
produce? (287d-289a)
73. How are sophists characterized at 291c?
74. What are the three main varieties of rule? What factors allow us to divide each
variety into two different subvarieties? (291 and 302d)
75. ESSAY: Why are laws written down in the first place?
What is the purpose of written laws? Why are laws always second best?
What is best and why? What would be worse than having written laws?
76. What analogy/simile is used to illustrate what the statesman does? (296e-297a)
77. Why is democracy a ludicrous idea? (297b-300e)
78. ESSAY: Discuss at length the theme of the one
and the many as it plays out in the Statesman.
79. If all expertises were done exclusively on the basis of written rules, what would be
the result? (299d-e)
80. Present the ranking of the seven different types of constitution (rule) from best to
worst. (303c)
81. How are generalship, the art of the judge, and rhetoric related to statesmanship?
(303e-305c)
82. Explain the Visitor's argument that moderation and courage are, in a certain way,
hostile and opposed to each other. (306b-307)
83. Explain who the warp and who the woof of the
statesman's weaving represent. (308-309b)
84. How should marriage and reproduction be managed by the statesman? (310-311)
85. Describe the final and most complete definition of the statesman.