INTRO TO ANCIENT
SECOND EXAM
REVIEW
Keep in mind that the questions on the test will come from your
understanding of what you have read as well as your attendance at class
lectures and discussions. You may not find answers in the texts because
they are the instructor’s interpretation. You will need to peruse your
notes as well.
1. PYTHAGORAS AND THE PYTHAGOREANS
a. What
are
the
two
“discoveries”
for
which
Pythagoras is best remembered? One deals with
music; the other with mathematics.
b. How did these “discoveries” change the way
Pythagoras looked at the KOSMOS? That is, how did
he supposedly view the KOSMOS?
c. What was the sacred symbol of the Pythagoreans?
d. How does this correspond to the way Greeks wrote
numbers?
e. What are the five regular solids and to what
element does each correspond?
f. What is the basic Pythagorean view of the soul
(PSYCHE)? Is it divine and immortal? Does it
reincarnate?
g. If it is divine, how does it end up in a material
body? Was it some act of violence? Would suicide
free the soul from the material body or merely
take it back to another material form?
h. What kinds of practices did the Pythagoreans have
for attempting to purify or free the soul from
its material constraints? Is mathematics one of
these practices?
i. How does Baird Callicott elucidate what is meant
by the Pythagorean claim that the ARCHE is
numbers, i.e. that all things are composed of
numbers?
j. Like Heraclitus and Empedocles, the Pythagoreans
had a notion of contraries which interacted with
each other to make the KOSMOS: How does this
inform their notion that the KOSMOS is procreated
or generated?
2. SOCRATES, PLATO AND PHILOSOPHY IN ATHENS
a. What effect does the early success of Greek
natural philosophy have on morality and religion?
b. What does this mean for philosophy in general? Is
there a shift from natural issues to moral
issues?
c. What is the difference between the Greek idea of
ethics and the more common one in our own time
inspired by the Judeo-Christian tradition? Is one
more interested in the virtues while the other is
more interested in following the rules?
d. As democracy took hold in Athens, there was also
a corresponding change in education: By the time
of Plato, who had taken the place of poets as the
teachers of the youth?
e. What is the context of the Republic? What does
Socrates say he is doing?
f. Who are the characters in the Republic? Of the
first three characters who Socrates engages in
dialog, what segments of Athenian society does
each represent?
g. Which character is specifically described by the
use of wild animal similes and metaphors?
h. With whom does Socrates engage on the issue of
growing old?
i. What is each character’s definition of Justice?
j. At the end of their discussion, before being
interrupted, do Socrates and Polemarchus agree
that Justice never harms anyone, either friends
or enemies?
k. After Socrates refutes Thrasymachus first
definiton of Justice as the advantage of the
stronger (and what does that mean?), how does
Thrasymachus make an argument for living an
Unjust life? In what ways does Socrates disagree?
l. What is the context of the Meno?
m. What question does Meno ask Socrates that leads
to their deeper discussion?
n. What are some of the definitions that Meno tries
to give to virtue?
o. When Socrates finds these definitions wanting,
what dilemma does Meno pose to Socrates
concerning what can be known?
p. What doctrine does Socrates claim to have
received from priests, priestesses, and poets
that counters the dilemma raised by Meno?
q. What does this doctrine have to do with the
soul’s innate rationality?
r. In what way does the geometrical demonstration in
the MENO offer a clue as to how virtue CANNOT be
defined in words but can be KNOWN.
s. In an ideal state, who should be the king or
ruler?
t. Who are the “true philosophers” according to
REPUBLIC, book V?
u. Using the example of beautiful things, does Plato
believe they all have one aspect (FORM) in
common? If so, what is it?
v. What are the three epistemological categories
(HOW WE KNOW) spoken of regularly by Baird and
Keith?
w. What are the three ontological categories (WHAT
THINGS ARE) spoken of regularly by Baird and
Keith?
x. How do they correspond to each other?
y. To which ontological category and epistemological
category would the Forms correspond?
z. Why should the intelligible Forms be considered
MORE real than the visible objects right in front
of you?
aa.
What is the simile of the Sun? How is the
Good LIKE the Sun?
bb.
Which of our sense organs is most like the
Sun?
cc.
Can a mind that is oriented on the Good
accomplish an ordering of the apparent confusion
of the living world?
dd.
Based on his studies of Plato, how does
Baird Callicott define the Good?
ee.
What is the Divided Line? How does it relate
to the epistemological and ontological categories
mentioned earlier?
ff.
How does it correspond to the other two
analogies that are given alongside it in Books 6
and 7 (the Simile of the Sun and the Allegory of
the Cave)?
gg.
How do the examples given of the images of
the Forms in the Divieded line suggest that
Socrates is a closet Pythagorean?
hh.
What is the highest method of reasoning on
the Divided Line?
ii.
In the allegory of the cave, to what
category of the Divided Line and to what objects
on it does the world outside the cave correspond?
jj.
To what do the shadows on the cave wall
correspond in our own time?