Practice Questions

for D. Palmer's Visions of Human Nature

Instructions: The following practice questions are designed for "instant gratification." As soon as you enter an answer you will receive the results of your test. If you take the quiz with an open book and most of your answers are correct, try taking the quiz again with the book closed in an hour or so. On the other hand, if you did not do well, spend some more time with the book and then do the entire quiz again with an open book. Complete the exercise before the chapter is discussed in class (see the schedule of readings), so that when we meet together you'll have control over the information and concepts presented in the chapter. Important: Don't forget to click the "REPORT" button at the bottom of this page when you have finished taking the test.

Chapter 1 - The Platonic Vision of Human Nature

1. Which of the following was key to Plato's concept of the individual and its relation to society?
(a) The individual must always be wary of society infringing on his or her inalienable liberties.
 (b) The most important thing in a healthy society is that it be ruled by individuals who are passionate about defending their state.
(c) The individual's relationship to the state is such that civil disobedience is a valid way of protesting unjust laws.
(d) Society has no life of its own, being merely a collection of discrete individuals.
 (e) The individual is the society writ small, and the individuals in turn determine the character of the society.
2. Plato takes the ultimate object(s) of knowledge to be:
(a) Physical objects.
(b) The Forms.
(c) The soul.
(d) The gods.
(e) None of the above.
3. According to Plato, reason is employed to do all of the following EXCEPT
(a) Grasp the good.
(b) Understand the Forms.
(c) Govern the city.
(d) Serve as a means to satisfy our desires.
(e) Both C & D.
4. When Socrates' friends offered to help him escape death by hemlock, he refused. Which of the following reasons did he give?
(a) Any punishment dictated according to the existing laws is just, because all laws are just.
(b) He felt some regret for his years of riling up the Athenian citizenry anyway, and believed that the charges were just.
(c) He believed that an individual had no right to break the law, because to do so would be to attack the concept of the Law itself.
(d) All of the above.
(e) A & C only.
5. Which of the following is the correct order of the sections in Plato's simile of the line (also known as "the divided line"), from most real to the least real?
(a) the Physical World, Images, Forms, Concepts.
(b) Forms, Concepts, Images, the Physical World.
(c) Concepts, Forms, the Physical World, Images.
(d) Forms, Concepts, the Physical World, Images.
(e) the Physical World, Forms, Concepts, Images.
6. Plato opposed the democracy of his time because
(a) It allowed for slavery.
(b) It did not give women the same political rights as men.n
 (c) It was governed by individual self-interest and political chicanery.
 (d) It could not create the social conditions needed to increase general prosperity.
(e) Both B & C.
7. In order to wage wars the military class makes up the majority of the population in Plato's ideal city. (T/F)
True
False
8. For Plato, the intelligible world is more real than the visible world. (T/F)
True
False
9. Every member in Plato's ideal city is encouraged to pursue philosophical study and become a philosopher. (T/F)
True
False
10. Plato believed that people fought wars with each other because they were not able to provide for themselves even the bare necessities. (T/F)
True
False
11. Plato believed that the characteristic excellence (or arete) of the spirit (in the individual) and of the military (in the state as a whole) was temperance. (T/F)
True
False
12. Plato believed that spirit was by its very nature the unshakeable ally of the reason. (T/F)
True
False
13. In The Republic, Socrates' "healthy city" and Plato's "ideal city" are the same thing. (T/F)
True
False
14. Plato was hostile to art because he was insensitive to its attractions.
True
False
15. For Plato the movement from opinion to knowledge comes through grasping the Forms intellectually, by the light of the Good.
True
False

Here are some short answer questions you might consider.

16. How does Plato understand the relation between the individual and the polis (city-state) in his Republic?

17. What is supposed to constitute the justice of a just city?

18. What are three parts of the individual/human soul in the order of their priority?

19. What are the three castes in Plato's ideal city and their respective prime virtue?

20. What is Plato's definition of virtue/form/justice?

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