Humanities 110
Paper Topic # 4
Length 1500 words (5-6 pages)

Due Saturday, December 3rd, 5 P.M. in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox. 

Choose one of the following:

1. In the Republic, Plato claims that justice requires that philosophers live a life of political activity as rulers of the kallipolis.  He also claims that the just life is the happiest life.  Are these two claims incompatible with one another?  Discuss this question by
   1. Explaining the reasons for thinking that these two claims are incompatible with one another.
   2. Developing in rigorous detail the strongest response Plato could give to the charge of incompatibility.
   3. Explaining why you think Plato’s response is satisfactory or unsatisfactory. Carefully outline the reasons supporting your assessment.
2. At the beginning of Book II of the Republic, Glaucon tells Socrates the story of the ring of Gyges (357c-360d). How much of a threat is the story to Plato's view that justice is invariably preferable to injustice?   In addressing this question
   1. Carefully outline how Glaucon’s story serves as a counter-example to Plato’s claim that justice is always preferable to injustice.
   2. Reconstruct at least one of the three objections Plato presents in Book IX to Glaucon’s challenge.
   3. Explain why you think Plato’s response is satisfactory or unsatisfactory.  Carefully outline the reasons supporting your assessment.
3. At Crito 50a-54d, Socrates presents two arguments to show that it would be wrong for him to escape. The arguments are based on two models of the citizen’s relationship to the laws. On one model the citizen is to the laws as a child is to a parent. On the other model, the citizen is to the laws as a party of a contract is to another party of a contract.
   1. Carefully explain one of these arguments. Identify the argument's premises and show how the conclusion is supposed to follow from the premises.
   2. Develop in rigorous detail ONE objection to the argument. (For example, one could argue that the conclusion does not follow from the premises of the argument. Or one could argue that one of the premises is false.)
   3. Develop in rigorous detail the strongest response you think Socrates could give to your objection.
   4. Explain why you think the response is satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
4. Compare the arguments made about the role and capabilities of women in the kallipolis in Plato’s Republic to Aristophanes’ representation of the role and capabilities of women in the Lysistrata.
5. These paper topics are designed to give you practice analyzing arguments. Using topics 1-3 above as a model, develop your own paper topic with the permission of your instructor.

Free tutoring! Reed College Writing Center, ETC 112. Hours: Sunday-Thursday 7-9 pm. Extended Hours: Thursday & Friday 7-10 pm before Hum 110 Papers are due.