Midterm Paper

Format
This paper is due on March 25, 2009 in class. Late papers will be severely downgraded. No email submission is accepted. It will comprise 20% of your grade for the course. You should select one of the questions from below and write a paper, 3-5 pages double-spaced, 1 inch margins, 12 point font. Answers should draw on the readings and class lectures; you may use outside sources, but it is not required. Citations should be made according to appropriate academic format.

Grading
This paper aims to test the students’ capability of making sound philosophical arguments. Therefore the following aspects will be considered during grading: overall structure, depth of text understanding, plausibility of argumentation, clarity of expression.


Questions
1. Socrates claimed that he became the wisest man by knowing that he knows nothing. How do you think about his view of wisdom?

2. What’s justice? Is it a skill of ruling? Is it an agreement among people? Or anything else? What have you learned from the related discussions in Republic?

3. Aristotle says that contemplation is the happiest life of human beings, but he also points out that the happiness of a community is higher than the happiness of an individual, is he contradicting himself? How to understand the relationship between contemplation and political good?