Third Essay Assignment (Unit 4): Plato's Republic

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS

1.  The assignment is to write an essay of approximately 1500-1800 words on either of the topics provided below.  It is due on Friday, December 17 at 10pm.  (If you are unable to submit the paper by that time, it is your responsibility to get in contact with me to apprize me of the situation as soon as possible.) Papers are to be submitted in PDF format, via Canvas.  Please put your own last name in the filename your last name, followed by “-3” (e.g., “Smith-3).  Please also remember to put your name on the first page of the document, and to number the pages. 

2.    If you wish to write on a different topic, you may propose one of your own, provided that you do so in writing (via email) no later than Monday, December 13.   (Your proposal should include both the question  to be addressed, and also a statement of a  provisional thesis.)

3.   Citations to the text should be given with  Stephanus numbers. You may provide the citations parenthetically within the body of your essay.     As this is a short paper, direct quotations   should be kept to a minimum - i.e., used only when truly needed for purpose of making a point.   However, please note that you  are expected to provide citations  for all references to specific statements or references in the text, whether or not you quote from the text directly. 

4. Please review the "Guidelines for Essays "  [separate document, posted on Canvas] for general instructions and suggestions regarding organization of essay.

TOPICS

Note:  The series of questions posed with each topic prompt is offered for suggestive guidance only; you needn't discuss every aspect of the issues raised. 

1. In Book VI of Plato’s Republic, Socrates and Glaucon agree that ordinary people would come to accept the rule of philosopher kings, assuming the latter were properly chosen and educated (500a, 502b). What is the basis of this claim? How (if at all) can it be reconciled with Socrates’ arguments elsewhere concerning the nature of politics and democracy? If this claim is consistent with Socrates’ arguments, what might this show about Plato’s aims in the Republic as a whole?  If it is inconsistent, what significance might this have for our understanding of the work?  (Note: If you find an inconsistency on this point, you would do well to consider whether this might involve a deliberate irony on Plato’s part.) 
 
2.  In Book IX of the Republic, Socrates finally responds to Glaucon’s challenge from the outset of Book II,   with an argument to show why a man who was able to commit injustice with impunity (unsuspected and unpunished by others) would be worse off than if he were restrained from doing so (588b, 591a).   (This is the argument he illustrates with the allegory of the soul as a many-headed creature.)    To what extent is this response to Glaucon’s challenge prefigured in Socrates’ rebuttal to Thrasymachus back in Book I?  To the extent this argument relies on the model of the soul that Socrates presented in Book IV, what are the propositions upon which it depends, and on the basis of what reasoning had those propositions been established? On what further, newly introduced considerations does he also rely, in order to bring this argument to its completion?