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FIRST PUBLIC EXAMINATION Honour Moderations in Classics (Courses IA and IC)

PLATO, EUTHYPHRO AND MEN0

HILARY TERM 2006 Monday 6 March, 09.30 - 12.30

Answer Question 1 and TWO others.

Marking scheme: Question 1 , 10% o f overall mark for each translation and for each commentary (total 50%); other questions, 25% each.

Do not turn over until told that you may do so.

TRANSLATE and write critical comments on TWO of the following passages, of which (a) may not be one, and, WITHOUT TRANSLATING, write critical comments on a third, which may if you wish be (a).

SOCRATES: Then the divinely approved is not holy, Euthyphro, nor is the holy divinely approved, as you say, but its different from this. EUTHYPHRO: How so, Socrates? SOCRATES: Because weve admitted that the holy gets approved for the reason that its holy, but its not because it gets approved that its holy. Right? EUTHYPHRO: Yes. SOCRATES: But then again the divinely approved, because it gets approved by the gods, is divinely approved by this very act o f approval: it is not the case that it gets approved because its divinely approved. EUTHYPHRO: That is true. SOCRATES: But i f the divinely approved and the holy were really the same thing, Euthyphro my friend, then: (i) i f the holy were getting approved because o f its being holy, then the divinely approved too would be getting approved because of its being divinely approved; whereas (ii) i f the divinely approved were divinely approved on account o f its getting approved by the gods, then the holy would be holy too on account o f its getting approved.

(PLATO, Euthyphro 1 O d 12- 1 1 a3)

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(PLATO, Meno 73a6-c5)

(PLATO, Meno 78a4-cl)

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TURN OVER

(PLATO, Meno 80dl-e5)

(PLATO, Meno 99e4- 100b4)

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(PLATO, Meno 98d10-99a5)

TURN OVER
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2.

A fine wine is one that all wine experts approve of. Does this definition suffer from the same problems as Euthyphros definition of the holy ( d hov) as whatever all the gods approve o f ? Does the fact that Meno cannot define excellence (fi d p ~show ) that he does not know what it is?

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Is Socrates right that those who desire bad things thinking them to be good in fact desire good things (Meno 77e3-4)?
How much of the theory of recollection could you believe if you did not believe in reincarnation? Ifsomeone asks you the same things many times and in many ways, you might become more convinced that your answer is right, but you wont necessarily come to know that it is. Discuss. If I do not know what a thing is, how should I know what sort of thing it is? (Meno 7 1b3-4). It looks as if we must consider of what sort something is when we dont yet know what it is (Meno 86e1-2). Does adoption of the hypothetical method involve dropping the earlier principle that you cant know what sort of thing something is if you dont know what it is? Is excellence knowledge?

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