Shared set · @asarrett · History of Political Thought (Western Political Philosophy)
CEL 100 – Great Debates in American Politics: Key Texts & Thinkers
Topics and reading list taken from the course syllabus; questions and explanations are written from the standard scholarly treatment of each primary text covered in the course.
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18 questions with worked explanations. Or make your own from your notes — the first draft needs no account.
What is in it
- In Plato's Euthyphro, what is the 'Euthyphro dilemma' that Socrates poses about piety?Answer: Is an act pious because the gods love it, or do the gods love it because it is pious?
- In Plato's Apology, what are the two sets of charges Socrates says he must answer, and how does he distinguish them?Answer: The old, informal charges (that he studies things in the sky and below the earth, and makes the weaker argument…
- Why does Socrates refuse to escape prison in the Crito, despite Crito's arguments that he could?Answer: He argues that one must never do wrong or return wrong for wrong, and that fleeing would violate his tacit agreement…
- According to Aristotle in Book I of the Nicomachean Ethics, what is the highest human good, and why is it self-sufficient and final?Answer: Eudaimonia (happiness/flourishing), because it is chosen for its own sake and not as a means to anything else, and it…
- In Book VIII of the Nicomachean Ethics, what are Aristotle's three kinds of friendship, and which is the most complete?Answer: Friendships of utility, pleasure, and virtue (the good); friendship based on virtue is the most complete and lasting.
- In On Free Choice of the Will, how does Augustine reconcile the existence of evil with an all-good, all-powerful God?Answer: Evil is not a positive substance created by God but a privation of good, caused by the misuse of free will by rational…
- What does Augustine mean by the will being 'the cause of sin,' and why can this not be blamed on God?Answer: Sin originates in a voluntary, uncoerced movement of the will away from higher, unchangeable goods toward lower,…
- In De Regno, what argument does Aquinas give for why kingship (rule by one) is the best form of government?Answer: Because unity produces the most effective and peaceful government, and one ruler can achieve the unity needed for the…
- How does Aquinas define tyranny in De Regno, and what recourse does he permit against a tyrant?Answer: Tyranny is rule directed at the private good of the ruler rather than the common good; Aquinas is cautious about…
- In The Book of the City of Ladies, what rhetorical strategy does Christine de Pizan use to respond to misogynist writers?Answer: She builds an allegorical city of illustrious women, guided by three personified virtues (Reason, Rectitude, and…
and 8 more — open the set to see every question and its worked explanation.