Advanced Govt Class Documents & Handouts

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Contents

Why did Churchill call the Germans “nominally” civilized?
Why did the author include the examples of the Holocaust and other genocides? What point is he making?
How do many universities answer questions like “what are the liberal arts and what is their relationship to education as a whole”? What are their answers missing?
What were the traditional liberal arts? Where did they come from?
What is the order in which students should learn the liberal arts? Why was this the order suggested?
What does “liberal arts” actually mean? What is the alternative type of art that people must have?
What is the relationship between school and leisure?
What unifying idea came under attack during the Modern era?
What are your conclusions about this article? What are your thoughts?

BEFORE YOU READ: What, in your own words, is “justice”? How do you know what is a “just” action?
Why is Discussion One titled: The Will of the Majority? What point is that title making?
How does Cephalus answer the question of what is “justice”? What example does Socrates use to highlight its weakness?
What is Cephalus’s attitude to the question of “what is justice?”
After reading Discussions One & Two, how would your answer to the question of “what is justice” change?

How does Polemarchus extend Cephalus’s (or rather, Simonides’s) definition of justice to save it?
In what ways does Socrates attack this definition of justice?
How does Polemarchus adjust (or accept Socrates’s adjustment) of his initial definition?
What do you think of Socrates’s arguments? What were his strongest points? Weakest?
How has your own definition of justice evolved since finishing these two readings and the class discussion we had?

What is Thrasymachus like as a character?
What is Thrasymachus’s (first) definition of justice?
How does Thrasymachus feel about Socrates’s philosophical method?
How does Socrates attempt to disprove his definition?
How does Thrasymachus modify his definition to try to satisfy Socrates, and how does Socrates challenge this modification?
After Thrasymachus’s speech with the shepherd analogy, the discussion shifts away from talking about justice and moves to discussing the benefits of living a just or unjust life. What is Thrasymachus’s stance?
How does Socrates show that the unjust cannot also be wise and good?
What flaws can you find in Socrates’s arguments against Thrasymachus? What general lessons can we learn from this discussion

What is a state, according to Aristotle?
What criteria can’t you use to determine who is a citizen?
What is a citizen? What form of government is Aristotle’s definition best suited for?
What is problematic about birth-right citizenship?
How should you not define a state? Why?
What is the virtue of a citizen and how does Aristotle compare it to the virtue of good men?
What is the virtue of a ruler and how does Aristotle compare it to the virtue of good men and of good citizens?
What rule of thumb does Aristotle recommend for the exercise of authority by freemen over freemen?

How does having a variety of people as citizens complicate the question of what makes a “good” citizen?
What is the purpose of the state? (and, for that matter, of individuals)
How is the interest of the master and the interest of the slave similar? What would Socrates likely say to this argument?
What makes a government despotic and perverse? What makes it a true government?
What are the three forms of governments (and what are their perversions)?
What truly distinguishes a democracy from an oligarchy?
How does Aristotle add to the complications of our understanding of justice?
Why isn’t mere companionship the purpose of civil society? What is its purpose?

How does Aristotle show that the will of the majority cannot be the measure of what is just? What do you think of his argument?
What other problems does he identify with the rule by the few and the rule be one?
What argument does he lay out to support the rule of the many as superior than other forms of governments? Why is this argument not universally applicable to all groups?
Why does Aristotle believe that it’s better to include some of the common, poor members of society in government? What do you think of his argument?
What argument does he offer to suggest it’s not a good idea to allow common people to vote? What do you think of how he overcame that dilemma?
What is justice, according to Aristotle?
In your opinion, what has been the strongest definition of justice you’ve come across so far? Why is it stronger than others?

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