Reading #Two: Plato’s Meno and The Republic: “The Form of the Good,” “The Divided Line” & “The Parable of the Cave” Multiple Choice (4 points each)

QUESTION

Reading #Two:

Plato’s Meno and

The Republic:

“The Form of the Good,” “The Divided Line”

& “The Parable of the Cave”

Multiple Choice (4 points each)

 

 

 

1) According to Socrates’ view, evil, when it occurs, is due to

 

1. a) the desire to be miserable.
2. b) the desire for evil.
3. c) mistaking evil for good.
4. d) selfishness.

 

2) What is Socrates responding to when he describes the soul’s immortality and how

learning is really recollection?

 

1. a) Meno’s last definition of virtue.
2. b) the slave boy’s inability to solve a problem in geometry.
3. c) Meno’s second definition of virtue.
4. d) Meno’s paradox of inquiry.

 

3) “And does this definition of virtue include all virtue?  Is virtue the same in a child and

in a slave, Meno?”  This is how Socrates responds to one of Meno’s definitions of

virtue.  Which one?

 

1. a) the first definition of virtue.
2. b) the second definition of virtue.
3. c) the third definition of virtue.
4. d) the last definition of virtue.

 

4) At one point in the dialogue (in response to Socrates’ criticism to his second definition

of “virtue”), Meno suggested that virtue should be equated with

 

1. a) temperance.
2. b) justice.
3. c) courage.
4. d) beauty.

 

 

5) At the very beginning of the dialogue, Meno wants Socrates to tell him

 

1. a) if he had ever met Gorgias.
2. b) how virtue is acquired.
3. c) how a guy from out of town might get some action in Athens.
4. d) what virtue is.

 

6) In the Republic, Plato suggested that the world of particular, changing things was

 

1. a) the only world of which we could have complete knowledge.
2. b) divine since it was created by God.
3. c) only a reflection of the world of universal, unchanging Forms.
4. d) ultimately composed of mathematical truths and eternal Forms.

 

7) “How fortunate I am, Meno!  When I ask you for one virtue, you present me with a

swarm of them, which are in your keeping.”  This is how Socrates responds to one of

Meno’s definitions of virtue.  Which one?

 

1. a) the first definition of virtue.
2. b) the second definition of virtue.
3. c) the third definition of virtue.
4. d) the last definition of virtue.

 

8) According to Plato’s “Divided Line,” the second level down from the top includes

 

1. a) images of things.
2. b) mathematical truths.
3. c) physical things.
4. d) eternal, unchanging Forms.

 

9) To investigate the teachability of virtue toward the end of the dialogue, Socrates and

Meno work through the following, basic argument:

 

1.  a) If virtue is knowledge, then virtue must be teachable.  If virtue is teachable, then it

must be profitable.  If virtue is profitable, then there ought to be some people

making money teaching it.  The Sophists make money teaching virtue.

Therefore, virtue must be profitable and teachable. Therefore, virtue must be

knowledge.

1. b) If virtue is knowledge, then virtue must be teachable. If virtue is teachable, then

there ought to be places where it is taught. There are no places where it is taught.

Therefore, virtue is not teachable, and therefore, virtue is not knowledge.

1. c) If virtue is knowledge, then virtue must be teachable. If virtue is teachable, then

there ought to be teachers of it.  There are no teachers of virtue. Therefore, virtue

is not teachable.  Therefore, virtue is not knowledge.

1. d) If virtue is knowledge, then virtue must be teachable. If virtue is teachable, there

ought to be teachers of it.  There are many teachers of virtue. Therefore, virtue

must be teachable.   Therefore, virtue must be knowledge.

 

 

10) According to Plato’s “Divided Line,” the third level down from the top includes

 

1. a) the eternal, unchanging Forms.
2. b) the physical things of this world.
3. c) images of things in this world.
4. d) mathematical truths.

 

11) Which level of reality described by “the Divided Line” would correspond to the

puppets that cast the shadows watched by the prisoners in Plato’s “Parable of the

Cave”?

 

1. a) the level of mathematical truths.
2. b) the level of images or reflections.
3. c) the level of the Forms.
4. d) the level of physical objects.

 

12) Socrates essentially argues that no one desires evil by suggesting that

 

1. a) to desire evil is to be confused about the nature of evil, and since it is impossible

not to know what evil really is, no one really desires evil.

1. b) either they think what is evil is really evil and don’t really see how miserable they

must be to desire it or they think that evil isn’t so bad after all, so they really must

know that evil is evil and yet desire to be miserable anyway.

1. c) they either think what they desire is good (in which case, they don’t really desire

evil) or they must know it is evil (in which case, they must desire to be miserable).

Since, however, no one desires to be miserable, then no one desires evil.

1. d) the soul is immortal and comes from the divine, and the divine is good; therefore,

people are essentially good, but they get distracted by the desires of their bodies.

 

13)  In Plato’s “Parable of the Cave,” what would correspond to the level of images and

reflections described in the “Divided Line”?

 

1. a) the fire blazing behind the prisoners.
2. b) the objects made out of wood and stone and held up between the fire and the wall

of the cave.

1. c) the shadows on the wall of the cave in front of the prisoners.
2. d) the reflections of the mirrors held up in front of the prisoners.

 

14) What realm of reality described by “the Divided Line” would correspond to the

area above and outside the cave in Plato’s “Parable of the Cave”?

 

1. a) the Sensible Realm.
2. b) the Form of the Good.
3. c) the Intelligible Realm.
4. d) the offspring of the Good.

 

 

 

 

 

 

15) Which character in the dialogue said that the Sophists were “a manifest pest and

corrupting influence to those who have to do with them”?

 

1. a) Meno.
2. b) Anytus.
3. c) Socrates.
4. d) Pericles.

 

16) According to Plato’s “Divided Line,” the lowest level includes

 

1. a) images or reflections of things.
2. b) the eternal, unchanging Forms.
3. c) mathematical truths.
4. d) physical things.

 

17) The ultimate conclusion of the Meno was that virtue was the result of

 

1. a) philosophical insight.
2. b) divine inspiration.
3. c) random luck.
4. d) divine dispensation.

 

18) Socrates claims that he doesn’t know how virtue is acquired because

 

1. a) he has never met anyone who knew what virtue was.
2. b) he doesn’t know what virtue is.
3. c) he has never met anyone who knew how virtue was acquired.
4. d) no one had ever taught him how virtue was acquired.

 

19) Socrates initially responds to Meno’s last definition of “virtue” by saying

 

1. a) “and will not virtue, as virtue, be the same, whether in a child or in a grown-up

person, in a woman or in a man?”

1. b) “and again we are in the same case: in searching after one virtue, we have found

many….”

1. c) “and does he who desires the honorable also desire the good?”
2. d) “can a child govern his father, or the slave his master?”

 

20) Who did Anytus recommend as perfectly good teachers of virtue?

 

1. a) the Sophists.
2. b) the gods.
3. c) any priest or priestess of the gods.
4. d) any Athenian gentleman.

 

 

 

21) The basic problem with all of Meno’s definitions, according to Socrates, was

 

1. a) that he was only repeating what Gorgias had taught him.
2. b) that he never gave his own definitions but only what other people thought.
3. c) that he kept giving examples or parts of virtue rather than its essence.
4. d) that his definitions contradicted each other.

 

22) What important distinction did Socrates discuss at the very end of the dialogue?

 

1. a) the distinction between the Visible Realm and the Intelligible Realm.
2. b) the distinction between knowledge and right opinion.
3. c) the distinction between the soul and the body.
4. d) the distinction between virtue and vice.

 

23) In their search for teachers of virtue, who initially suggested that they consider

those individuals who profess to teach virtue and who get paid for their instruction?

 

1. a) Meno.
2. b) Anytus.
3. c) Socrates.
4. d) the Sophists.

 

24) In the “Parable of the Cave,” after the released prisoner goes up out of the cave and

looks up at the heavens, what does the sun correspond to in Socrates’ previous

description of “The Divided Line”?

 

1. a) the Visible Realm.
2. b) the light of the fire that generates shadows on the cave walls.
3. c) the Form of the Good.
4. d) the Intelligible Realm.

 

25) At the very end of Plato’s Meno, what is the last thing Socrates asks Meno to do?

 

1. a) He suggests Meno ought to search his own soul if he wants to discover the true

meaning of virtue.

1. b) He asked Meno to track down Anytus and try to calm him down and convince

him not to be so exasperated.

1. c) He encouraged Meno to seek knowledge of the true and the good.
2. d) He suggested that Meno must learn humility in order to become virtuous.

3. ANSWER

4. 1) c) mistaking evil for good.
   2) d) Meno’s paradox of inquiry.
   3) b) the second definition of virtue.
   4) a) temperance.
   5) d) what virtue is.
   6) c) only a reflection of the world of universal, unchanging Forms.
   7) b) the second definition of virtue.
   8) a) images of things.
   9) c) If virtue is knowledge, then virtue must be teachable. If virtue is teachable, then there ought to be teachers of it. There are no teachers of virtue. Therefore, virtue is not teachable. Therefore, virtue is not knowledge.
   10) c) images of things in this world.
   11) b) the level of images or reflections.
   12) c) they either think what they desire is good (in which case, they don’t really desire evil) or they must know it is evil (in which case, they must desire to be miserable). Since, however, no one desires to be miserable, then no one desires evil.
   13) c) the shadows on the wall of the cave in front of the prisoners.
   14) c) the Intelligible Realm.
   15) c) Socrates.
   16) d) physical things.
   17) b) divine inspiration.
   18) b) he doesn’t know what virtue is.
   19) b) “and again we are in the same case: in searching after one virtue, we have found many….”
   20) c) any priest or priestess of the gods.
   21) c) that he kept giving examples or parts of virtue rather than its essence.
   22) b) the distinction between knowledge and right opinion.
   23) d) the Sophists.
   24) c) the Form of the Good.
   25) a) He suggests Meno ought to search his own soul if he wants to discover the true meaning of virtue.