Reference no: EM133320936

Question 1: By summarizing and analyzing the story of the prisoners in the cave, and the one who loses his chains, explain Socrates'/Plato's distinction - in the "Allegory of the Cave" in Book VII of the Republic - between (A) those who have/seek knowledge of the truth versus (B) those who do not. By what logic does he distinguish them? You should not generalize; identify actual language from the text itself to describe the type of person or describing each kind of person or each faculty within any one person. Your example(s) should work together to explain a specific A vs. B distinction.

Question 2: Discuss Socrates' markedly gendered conclusion to our selection from Book X of the Republic, as well as any other gendered moments in Book X you found curious. What are the implications of his assertion that "[o]nce entry is permitted to the honey-tongued Muse [poetry], pleasure and pain will become kings of the city, law will be displaced, and so will that governing reason which time and opinion have approved," and for that reason "she" must be exiled from the ideal republic? Consider also Socrates' seeming concession that "we would certainly offer her partisans - not poets themselves but those who love poetry - an opportunity to plead her case" that "she" deserves inclusion (88-9). Your answer may focus specifically on this proposal (exile, with the possibility of an appeal) or on the broader implications of making the "[ancient] quarrel between philosophy and poetry" a sort of battle of the sexes. [Here, for instance, philosophy, like future philosopher-kings, are presumably male; poetry is explicitly "she" who must be "reminded" (88), scolded, punished; but other examples are also relevant for this response.]