PHI 105 Assignment Short Essay PreSocratic Philosopher Recent
PHI 105 Assignment Short Essay PreSocratic Philosopher Recent
Resource: Writing Wizard at the Center for Writing Excellence
Select a Pre-Socratic philosopher you feel had the most compelling ideas.
Write a 350- to 700-word essay on the Pre-Socratic philosopher you selected. Introduce your essay with a concise thesis statement, and follow up with supportive arguments. Complete your essay with a logical conclusion.
Include the following in your essay:
- A summary of your selected philosopher’s ideas
- Evidence the philosopher used to support his or her arguments
- An explanation of why you find your selected philosopher’s ideas compelling
- At least one practical example of one of the philosopher’s ideas
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Format your paper consistent with APA guidelines.
Imagine that you are observing Plato and Aristotle at Plato’s Academy arguing over the Theory of Forms and the Theory of Knowledge. You are a young student taking notes on the argument.
Resource: Philosophy: The Power of Ideas, pp. 49–61
Write a 700- to 1400-word fictional dialogue illustrating the ideas of Plato and Aristotle. Use the dialogue form to illustrate the discussion as you imagine it may have sounded.
Answer the following questions within the dialogue:
- What would Plato argue?
- What would Aristotle argue?
- With whom would you side?
- Thought Experiment — The Ring of Gyges
I look forward to your participation! Also, please remember to respond to FIRST MESSAGES! In Book II of Plato’s famous utopia The Republic, his characters are arguing about what it means to do good and to be just. Glaucon argues that people do good and are just because society tells them to and because they are too weak to be unjust. In other words, because they might get caught. To prove his point, he introduces the famous story of the Ring of Gyges. According to this story, there is a shepherd, Gyges, who is out tending his flock one day when all of a sudden there is a huge storm and earthquake. After the terror has passed, Gyges goes over and looks into the giant chasm the earthquake has opened in the earth. Inside he sees a giant metal horse. He climbs down and looks inside the horse and sees a skeleton with a ring on his finger. Gyges takes the ring off and puts it on. He steps outside and calls to his sheep, but they wander around him, bumping into him as if he is invisible. Gyges soon figures out that if he turns the stone on the ring, he actually becomes invisible. Gyges, using the ring and his new found invisibility, goes off to the palace where he gets into all sorts of trouble, not the least of which includes seducing the queen, killing the king, and taking the throne.
The tale was well known in the time of Plato and, if you read closely enough, you might see similarities to modern tales, such as The Lord of The Rings. Glaucon argues that if there were two rings and you gave one to a just man and one to an unjust man, they would both act the same.
Are we just because society tells us to be or because that is part of human nature? If you had Gyges’s ring, what would you do with it? Finally, if someone gets pleasure from helping others or from doing good deeds, should these actions be considered selfish?
From Matt Lawrence, Philosophy on Tap: Pint-Sized Puzzles for the Pub Philosopher (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 93. Adapted with permission.