English 399 Paper 1

Plato

Choose one of the following topics for an extensive, well-developed essay. Use this essay as a way to show what you have learned about the poets you discuss. Give as much appropriate detail as possible, including significant QUOTATIONS and page/line references.


Be sure to follow my Essay Guide and to use MLA format!

Due: Thursday, September 28, 2006

Length: 7-10 typed pages (250 words per page)

The purpose of this paper is to write an essay in which you explore in detail the issues surrounding one key theme in both The Republic and Phaedrus. While you must be concise, you must also give brief and pointed examples to support your claims.

 
BEING: In both of the dialogues we have read, Plato explores the spectrum of Being/Appearance/Not-Being, or that which TRULY IS, that which merely SEEMS to be, and that which in NO WAY is. Why does this spectrum interest Plato? What does it have to do with truth? What does it have to do with writing?

LOVE: What is the function of love in Plato's system? What does a loving relationship look like? How do his discussions with Phaedrus and Glaucon illustrate this relationship?
WRITING: What is Plato's position on writing? What is its function? What are its problems? Plato's questions regarding writing in The Republic concentrate on poetry.

SPEECH: In both of our texts Plato discusses the problem of proper speech. What is the function of speech in Plato's system? What are its responsibilities? What can go wrong in speech?

SPEECH vs. WRITING: What's up with Plato's opposition of speech and writing? Why, in his philosophy, is speech greater than writing? What's so great about speech? What's so wrong with writing?

HOMER vs. SOCRATES: A common issue in both texts is who is to have the greatest influence on the minds of Athenian youth, the poets, the sophists, or the philosophers. But as we have seen, Plato often turns to his own kind of poetry at crucial moments in his argumentation. Why are his tales or myths or analogies any better than Homer's?
George Hartley • English 399 • English Department • Ohio University