True or false? 1 point each
SELECT: 1
Q: Socrates was a student of Plato.
POINTS: 1
ANSWER: False
TYPE: TF

Q: Socrates thought knowing the good was sufficient for making someone good.
POINTS: 1 
ANSWER: True
TYPE: TF

Q: Socrates’ questioning always led to conclusive answers to questions about the nature of truth,
 beauty, justice, knowledge, etc.
ANSWER: False
POINTS: 1 
TYPE: TF 

Q: Socrates, a heroic soldier, died in a battle with the Spartans.
ANSWER: False
POINTS: 1
TYPE: TF 

Define 1 point each
SELECT: 1
Q: Define: arete
POINTS:1
ANSWER: Arete means "human excellence" in Greek.
TYPE: ES

Q: Define: irony
POINTS: 1
ANSWER: Irony is a rhetorical technique, in which a speaker emphasizes a point by saying the opposite of
 what he or she means.  For example, if your company lays off 1000 people and your job is in danger, you
 might say, ironically, "My morale is soaring".
TYPE: ES 

Essays 2 points each
SELECT: 2
Q: According to Palmer, what should we make of Socrates' claims not to know the answers to the questions
 he asks? Why does Socrates claim to be ignorant? Is Socrates really ignorant? 
POINTS: 2
ANSWER: When Socrates says he doesn't know the qnswers to the questions he asks, he is often being ironic.
  Irony is a rhetorical technique, in which a speaker emphasizes a point by saying the opposite of what
  he or she means.  For example, if your company lays off 1000 people and your job is in danger, you
  might say, ironically, "My morale is soaring".  Socrates uses irony a lot.  When he thinks his
  respondent is an idiot, he'll say "You are so wise."  If he knows something the respondent doesn't
  know, he'll say "I am ignorant. Teach me, o wise one!"  Socratic irony is different from the irony of
  Dilbert or Seinfeld, however, because in another, deeper sense, Socrates is NOT being ironic: Socrates
  really doesn't know.  And he knows he doesn't know -- unlike his respondents, at least at the
  beginning of the dialog -- so in that sense, he is at least not ignorant about his ignorance.
TYPE: ES

Q: What is Socratic irony?
POINTS: 2
ANSWER: Irony is a rhetorical technique, in which a speaker emphasizes a point by saying the opposite of
 what he or she means.  For example, if your company lays off 1000 people and your job is in danger, you
 might say, ironically, "My morale is soaring".  Socrates uses irony a lot.  When he thinks his
 respondent is an idiot, he'll say "You are so wise."  If he knows something the respondent doesn't
 know, he'll say "I am ignorant; teach me, o wise one."  Socratic irony is different from the irony of
 Dilbert or Seinfeld, however, because in another, deeper sense, Socrates is NOT being ironic: Socrates
 really doesn't know.  And he knows he doesn't know -- unlike his respondents, at least at the beginning
 of the dialog -- so in that sense, he is at least not ignorant about his ignorance.
TYPE: ES

Q: Why was Socrates so interested in obtaining knowledge of truth, beauty, goodness, etc.?
POINTS: 2
ANSWER: Socrates thought knowledge of these things transformed people (the Socratic paradox). So
 Socrates' goal was discover closed-concept-type definitions of important notions like Reality, Truth,
 Beauty, Goodness.  He thought philosophers should go about this project by emulating math. If you can
 precisely define an abstract concept like "square" using only logic and precise language, you should be
 able to do the same for other abstract concepts like Reality and Goodness.  And then, because Socrates
 says real knowledge changes you (the Socratic paradox), if you get this knowledge, your life will be
 transformed. And if knowledge can transform people, Socrates can save Athens (and civilization) by
 teaching the young men of Athens how to find the answers. Socrates did not find the answers himself,
 but he thought answers would be found if people pursued the method and didn't give up.
TYPE: ES

Q: Why was Socrates important in the history of philosophy? 
HINT: To answer this question well, you need to talk about open and closed concepts.
POINTS: 2
ANSWER: Socrates was important in the history of philosophy because he outlined the basic goals and
 strategy of philosophy for the next couple of millenia.  Goal: discover closed-concept-type definitions
 of important notions like Reality, Truth, Beauty, Goodness.  Strategy: emulate math. If you can
 precisely define an abstract concept like "square" using only logic and precise language, you should be
 able to do the same for other abstract concepts like Reality and Goodness.  And then, because Socrates
 says real knowledge changes you (the Socratic paradox), if you get this knowledge, your life will be
 transformed.
The last couple of hundred years of philosophy have been moving steadily away from this
 approach, because philosophers on the whole no longer think all concepts are capable of the same
 precise definition as math concepts.
TYPE: ES

Q: What is the Socratic paradox, and why is it a paradox?
POINTS: 2
ANSWER: The Socratic paradox is the claim that no one does bad things knowingly.  In other words, when
 people do bad things, they do them because they really don't know any better.  The claim is paradoxical
 because it seems to be the opposite of what people believe: people usually think that a person CAN know
 that something is bad, and choose it anyway.  For example, most people who smoke cigarettes "know"
 smoking is bad for them -- they know it in the sense that they would answer "F" to the T/F question
 "Smoking is good for me".  But Socrates would say that as long as they continue to smoke, they don't
 really KNOW smoking is bad, since if they really knew it, they wouldn't do it.  This is why Socrates
 thinks if you really know, your behavior will change.  You really know X if you can give a math-type
 closed-concept definition of X. If you really know goodness, you'll see how GOOD it is, and you'll
 automatically prefer the good and not be drawn to the bad.
TYPE: ES