Exam 8: Plato Apology

According to Wollstonecraft, "and what they say of man I extend to mankind, insisting, that in all cases morals must be fixed on immutable principles; and that the being cannot be termed rational or virtuous, who obeys any authority but that of custom."

What are some of Socrates's reasons for claiming that doing evil or harming other people is never justified? Do you agree with Socrates? Explain your answer.

According to Appiah, "The notion that what has held the United States together historically over its great geographical range is a common culture, like the common culture of a traditional society, is not ..."

According to Appiah, "Once we move from talking of cultures to identities, whole new kinds of problems come into view."

According to Dewey, "The political and governmental phase of democracy is a means, the best means so far found, for realizing ends that lie in the wide domain of human relationships and the development of human personality. It is, as we often say, though perhaps without appreciating all that is involved in the saying, a way of life, social and individual."

According to Appiah, in a "traditional society we may speak of these shared beliefs, values, signs, and symbols as the ________________; not, to insist on a crucial point, in the sense that everyone in the group actually holds the beliefs and values, but in the sense that everybody knows what they are and everybody knows that they are widely held in the society."

Locke says, "The first power, namely, of doing whatsoever he thought fit for the preservation of himself and the rest of mankind, he gives up to be regulated by laws made by the society, so far forth as the preservation of himself and the rest of that society shall require; which laws of the society in many things confine the liberty he had by the law of Nature." Do you agree with Locke? Explain your answer.

Macaulay tells us that "we cannot with any grounds of reason or propriety, set up our own constitution as the model which all other nations ought implicitly to follow, unless we are certain that it bestows the greatest possible happiness on the people which in the nature of things any government can bestow."

In the reading, Socrates says, "For I am and always have been one of those natures who must be guided by the will of the people."

Mill says, "This, then, is the appropriate region of human liberty. It comprises, first, the inward domain of _______________; demanding liberty of conscience, in the most comprehensive sense; liberty of thought and feeling; absolute freedom of opinion and sentiment on all subjects, practical or speculative, scientific, moral, or theological."

According to Mill, "What was now wanted was, that the rulers should be identified with the people; that their interest and will should be the interest and will of the nation. The nation did not need to be protected against its own will. There was no fear of its ____________ over itself."

Green says, "Suppose that, despite the considerable socio-biological evidence to the contrary, there are no natural or basic differences of interest between the sexes, but that the differences that appear are only the result of an unjustly imposed ..."

According to Marx and Engels, "When, in the course of development, class distinctions have disappeared, and all production has been concentrated in the hands of a vast association of the whole nation, the public power will lose its political character. _______________, properly so called, is merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another."

According to Hobbes, "a real unity of them all in one and the same person, made by covenant of every man with every man, in such manner, as if every man should say to every man, 'I authorize and give up my right of governing myself to this man, or to this assembly of men, on this condition: that you give up your right to him, and authorize all his actions in like manner.' This done, the multitude so united in one person, is called a ..."

According to Appiah, "The move from 'civilization' to 'culture' was the result of arguments. The move away from evaluation came first, once people recognized that much evaluation of other cultures by the Europeans and Americans who invented anthropology had been both ignorant and biased."

Explain what Green means when she says, "It may well be that it is only a legacy of historical powerlessness which leads so many women to continue to aspire to marriage, a home in the suburbs, and 2.3 children. Yet it is not clear that differences in life-style choices between the sexes are always coerced."

Explain what Aristotle means when he says, "When several villages are united in a single complete community, large enough to be nearly or quite self-sufficient, the state comes into existence, originating in the bare needs of life, and continuing in existence for the sake of a good life." Do you agree with Aristotle? Explain your answer.

Explain what Appiah means when he says, "When we teach children democratic habits through practice in public schools, what we are creating is a shared commitment to certain forms of social behavior."

According to Aristotle, "it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature endowed with rights. Nature, as we often say, makes nothing in vain, and man is the only animal whom she has endowed with the gift of speech."

According to Aristotle, "it is evident that the state is a creation of nature, and that man is by nature __________________. Nature, as we often say, makes nothing in vain, and man is the only animal whom she has endowed with the gift of speech."