Write a 2-3 page paper on one of the following topics.  The paper is due in class on Firday, November 5.  If necessary and with suitable explanation, you can get an extension on the paper.  But the extension must be arranged in advance of the due date.  Otherwise, late papers will be penalized as described on the Course Description.  Before starting, consult the Writing Guidelines handout on the course website.  Students are welcome to discuss their topics and drafts with Dale or me.

1. In the Protagoras Socrates offers an argument against the possibility of akrasia or weakness of the will.  He thinks that putative akrasia really results from a miscalculation of pleasures and pains induced by temporal bias.  Explain the role of temporal bias in the argument.  Do you find the argument convincing?  Explain the role of the denial of akrasia within the Protagoras and Socratic ethics.

2. The Crito seems to many people to defend a rather authoritarian account of political obligation (according to which disobedience is never or rarely permitted) and so to be inconsistent with Socrates's nonauthoritarian position in the Apology (28b-32e).  What is the basis for this reading of the Crito and for the worry about Socrates's consistency?  Is this the right reading of the Crito's account of political obligation?  Do you see any basis for a less authoritarian reading of the Crito?

3. What is Meno's paradox and what problem does it pose for Socratic inquiry?  How do the mini-elenchus with the slave boy, the distinction between knowledge and true belief, and the doctrine of Recollection figure in Plato's response to the paradox?  What solution(s) does Plato offer?  If there is more than one, explain their comparative merits.