Write a 4-5 page paper on one of the following topics.  Students also taking PHIL 161 cannot write on a topic that they wrote on for that class.  The paper is due in class on Wednesday, December 1.  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/or a draft with Dale or me.

1. According to Aristotle, Plato separates the forms, whereas Socrates does not (Metaphysics 987a31-b10, 1078b12-79a4, 1086a30-b7).  What does Aristotle mean by this?  Assess his claim about Socrates or Plato (but probably not both).

2. In the Phaedo Plato defends psychophysical dualism and the immortality of the soul in part by appeal to his theory of Recollection.  What is Simmias's Attunement objection?  Explain and assess Plato's response(s).

3. In the Phaedo Plato appeals to sensible flux to explain why knowledge requires forms.  In the Republic Plato seems to deny that the senses are inadequate for fingers (523a-525a).  Plato seems to have a problem if he makes all of the following assumptions.

1. There is knowledge of fingers.
2. Forms are necessary for knowledge.
3. Forms are nonsensible.
4. A sensible account of fingers is not subject to flux.
5. There are forms for fingers.
6. Flux is the only reason to posit Forms.

4. In Republic ii Glaucon and Adeimantus claim to be dissatisfied with Socrates's reply to Thrasymachus and restate his challenge.  What is their challenge, and what do they assume about justice?  How, if at all, do they modify Thrasymachus's position, and what significance does their challenge have for Socratic and Platonic ethics?

5. Explain Plato's account of the division of the soul in book iv of the Republic.  What does the tri-partite division of the soul have to do with Plato's account of the virtues?  And how do these issues affect the relation between Plato and Socrates on the nature of the virtues and the possibility of akrasia?

6. In "The Individual as Object of Love" Vlastos claims that genuine love requires the lover to be concerned for the beloved's own sake.  This requirement, he thinks, is incompatible both with Socrates's egoistic account of love in the Lysis and with Plato's (allegedly) impersonal account of love in the Symposium and Phaedrus.  Is Vlastos right in his criticisms of Socrates and/or Plato?

7. The ideal state in the Republic is authoritarian and likely to offend democratic and liberal sensibilities.  In what ways is Plato's political theory authoritarian, what is Plato's justification of authoritarian rule, and what are the most serious complaints about it?