Professor S. Newman
AS/POLS 2900B: Perspectives on Politics
First Term Essay Assignment
F/W 2014/2015
Distributed in lecture on Tuesday, September 30.
Your paper is due in tutorial no later than Tuesday, November 11. You are to hand your paper in to
your TA at the meeting of your tutorial group.
Instructions:
* Answer one (and only one) of the questions listed below in a five to seven page paper (typed,
double-spaced with one-inch margins).
* Please do not consult secondary sources. The assignment is intended to elicit your
understanding of the texts.
* You should support your argument with relevant quotations and through the use of paraphrase.
* All quotations and references to specific passages must be cited. Citations may appear in the
form of standard foot- or endnotes or in the body of your paper using the author-date system. Authordate citation consists of the author’s last name and the year of publication of the work followed by the
page number. Here’s an example:
Plato’s Socrates thinks his companions will find it ridiculous that he favours giving
women the same education as men in the kallipolis (Plato 2004, 138-146).
An alternative version of this form of citation to be used when the lines of the text are numbered, as they
are in the case of Plato’s Republic, is as follows:
Plato’s Socrates thinks his companions will find it ridiculous that he favours giving
women the same education as men in the kallipolis (Plato 2004, line 451).
If you use this form of citation you must append to your paper a bibliography giving the complete
reference. The bibliographic entry for the example given above would read as follows:
Plato 2004, Republic, C.D.C. Reeve, trans. Indianapolis, Indiana: Hackett Publishing Co.
If you want to know more about how to reference a work, consult a style guide (e.g., The Chicago
Manual of Style).
Questions:
1. "The analogy Socrates and his companions make between the just city and the just person falls apart
on close inspection. The commoners and auxiliaries are persuaded by the myth of the metals that the
guardians are best suited to rule, but it's nonsensical to believe that spirit and appetite can be persuaded of
anything. After all, they are merely constituent parts of the soul (the parts lacking a deliberative
capacity). Only a fully formed human being with a capacity for reason can understand the Noble Lie and
be persuaded by it." Do you agree or disagree with this statement? Defend your position through a close
reading of the text. Be sure to explore the implications of the statement for the politics of Plato's
kallipolis.
2. To what extent do the imperfect definitions of justice offered by Cephalus, Polemarchus, and
Thrasymachus in Book I of the Republic find their way into the conception of justice that Socrates and his
companions arrive at by the end of the dialogue? To what extent is the conception of justice toward
which the group is led by Socrates genuinely new?
3. Plato’s Socrates presents the philosopher and the tyrant as mirror opposites, and yet the rule of the
philosopher-king is every bit as absolute as the rule of a tyrant. Moreover, each may be said to get what
he desires most out of ruling. The tyrant gets to indulge his appetites to the fullest, the philosopher-king
gains a realm hospitable to philosophy. Is the philosopher-king merely a tyrant who has undergone a
public relations make-over?