730:342:01 McGary
Social & Political Philosophy Through History Spring 2015
Study Questions
Be sure to answer every aspect of the question called for by the question. Make sure that you define key concepts and terms and to support your answers. Try to anticipate objections to what you have to say.
1. Explain the “gratitude,” “consent,” and “fair-play” arguments for political obligation sketched in Plato’s Crito. Explain one advantage that these arguments are said to have over “utilitarian” accounts of political obligation. You must define key terms.
2. Socrates agreed to persuade the State to change its views or to accept its commands. Why does Crito think that Socrates is not obligated to accept his sentence? Why does Socrates disagree with Crito?
3. According to Plato in the Republic, what is the relationship between justice and Happiness?
4. Explain and discuss the analogy hat Plato draws in the Republic between the just state and the just individual.
5. Explain the role of the Guardians in Plato’s just community. How are the Guardians, selected and educated? Why are they separated from the rest of the community?
6. Explain Plato’s divided line analogy in Book Six of the Republic.
7. In the Politics, why does Aristotle reject the view that things should be held in common by citizens in a just state?
8. How does Aristotle define human happiness in the just community?
9. According to Aristotle, when can slavery be justified?
10. What does Aristotle mean when he says: “justice is giving each person his due”?
11.What does Hobbes take to be the nature and source of the conflict in his “state of nature?” How does he attempt to resolve this conflict? Discuss one problem that you see for his resolution.
12. What does Hobbes mean by a “natural right?” Does his understanding of natural rights differ from contemporary accounts of human rights that impose “positive duties” on others? Defend your answers and define key terms.
13.Why do the parties in Hobbes’s state nature agree to give the sovereign absolute authority?
14. Why does Hobbes reject a right to revolution? 15. Why has the Lockean state been labeled a “referee state” and why does Locke claim that rational parties in his “state of nature” would choose this form of state authority? Are you persuaded by Locke’s reasoning? Support your answers and define key terms.
16. What does Locke mean by “tacit consent?” Is tacit consent incompatible with Locke’s general theory of political obligation? Be sure to define key concepts and to defend your answer.
17. Is it permissible for the Lockean state to enact laws that ban the use of cocaine by consenting adults? Be sure to include in your answer a discussion of Locke’s views on “legal paternalism.” You must support your answer and define key terms.
18. Did Locke support a right to revolution? If he did, under what conditions does he do so? State and explain one criticism of a Lockean right to revolution.
19. Does Locke’s believe that human slavery can be justified? Support your answer.
20. Some critics have argued that Locke’s account of private property justifies too much inequality. Do you agree? Be sure to explain Locke’s conditions for just property acquisition and your understanding of the “Lockean Proviso.” Support your answer.
21. What does Locke mean by reparations and why does he consider reparations an important part of justice.
22. In the Second Treatise of Government, does Locke provide a forward-looking account (deterrence), backward-looking account (retribution) or a mixed account of punishment?
23. Explain Locke’s account of natural rights. Why does he emphasize the right to property?
