Seminar

Instructions

You will be divided into groups of 3-4 students. Each group will read one extract from Jostein Gaarder’s Sophie’s World, and answer the corresponding questions. Use your the answers to prepare a short presentation where you will explain the key ideas. You should prepare a transparency to support you talk.


Plato’s Academy (pp.81-82)

1) What was it that had a profound influence on Plato’s and his work?
2) What did Socrates’ death reveal to Plato?
3) What was The Apology?
4) Who was Academus and why is his name significant today?
5) What was taught in Plato’s academy?



The Eternally True, Eternally Beautiful, and Eternally Good (pp.82-83)

1) What was Plato’s project? In your answer explain the following terms: eternal, immutable and “flows”.
2) The Sophists thought that right and wrong was something that “flowed”, and Socrates disagreed. Explain.
3) What is the role of philosophers, and why are they sometimes unpopular?


The World of Ideas (pp.83-85)

1) Plato thought that everything tangible “flows”. Explain.
2) What is the “form” of a horse, and in what way is it eternal and immutable?
3) What are “crocophants” and “elediles”?
4) What have gingerbread men got to do with all this?
5) What makes the gingerbread man mold perfect and beautiful
6) What is an “idea horse” and where can you find it?



True Knowledge (pp.85-87)
1) What do philosophers try to grasp?
2) What is the relationship between everything we see in nature and a soap bubble?
3) Why can’t we have true knowledge of things we see? Explain using the examples of: rainbows, pinecones, the product of 3x8, and the sum of the angles in a circle.




An Immortal Soul (pp. 87-89)
1) Plato believed that reality could be divided into two regions; what are they?
2) How do we perceive the world of ideas?
3) In what way are humans dual creatures?
4) What is the relationship between the immortal soul and the world of ideas?
5) Explain what happens to the soul’s knowledge of the world of ideas once it enters a body?
6) Explain how we develop a yearning for the world of ideas. (Can you see the relationship with Hamlet here?)
7) Compared to philosophers what do most people think when they see a horse, gingerbread cookies or shadows?


Reference

Gaarder, Jostein (1994) Sophie's World. Berkley Signature Edition. New York.

Answers


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