The paper (3-5 pages long) is due Wed., Dec. 8, in my office, Gates-Blake 228, by 4:30pm. Gates-Blake is the building connected to Cobb. (I am setting the 4:30pm limit mostly because Gates-Blake gets locked at some point in the evening--I'm not sure exactly when.)
As in the case of the other papers: the below topics
are suggestions. If you want to write on another topic, feel free to
do so. It might be a good idea, however, in that case, to check with
me and/or Justin first.
The intent of the paper is to discuss the views or
attitudes of our authors and/or their characters, rather than your own
opinions on a certain topic. Of course you can't and shouldn't
completely keep your own opinions out of it, but your argument as a
whole should aim at establishing something about or authors and/or
their characters mean. Your thesis should be your own, original idea
about that.
(In particular, this means your argument should not mainly aim at showing that our authors and/or their characters
are good or bad or right or wrong. Before you could ever decide that
you would have to figure out what they actually think and how they
actually act, which is what this paper should be about.)
There are two difficult but important distinctions
which can potentially be drawn between Socrates and Plato: (1) between
Plato's Socrates and Socrates as he really was; (2) between Plato's
character Socrates and Plato himself. I use the phrase Plato
and/or Socrates below to indicate that you might want to make
either or both of these distinctions. (For the purposes of distinction
(1), data from Aristophanes and Xenophon could obviously be important,
and possibly some of the stories about Plato and Diogenes the Cynic;
there are other ways of guessing, too.) (Note also that Plato might
not always portray Socrates in the same way--Socrates in the Apology, the Euthyphro, the Meno, and the Republic, might all be different.)
All of the below topics require you to use material
from both Plato and Aristotle. As I just mentioned, Aristophanes,
Xenophon, and the stories about Diogenes could be useful as well. In
addition, all of the topics allow (though none require) the use of
Homer. But even if you do use some of that material, please make sure
that both the Meno and Aristotle play an important role in
your paper.
Refer to Plato by Stephanus numbers and Aristotle by
Becker numbers. As before, use book and line number for Homer and line
numbers for Aristophanes. You can use page numbers in Xenophon and
Diogenes Laertieus. In all these cases, you need give information about
the translation you used only if it's different from the one I
ordered/handed out. Once again, you need give full bibliographical
references only if you for some reason bring in an outside source.