PHIL331: Ancient Philosophy
Dennis Beach, OSBPaper Topics for Plato, Laches Spring 2006
Due: Groundhog’s Day, Thursday, February 2
Follow basic format for papers: typed, double-spaced, with standard heading
(name, class, date). Pages should have your initial and last name with a page
number in the upper right-hand corner. Paper-clip (don’t staple!) pages
together. Length: 3-5 pages (800-1500 words) although the appropriate
development of your ideas is more important than arbitrary length.
- Laches and Nikias, unlike some of the more quarrelsome characters we meet in
some of the other dialogues, seem to be good men sincerely interested in the
topic they are discussing with Socrates. At the same time, their discussion
seems inconclusive, or at least concludes with the admission that they have not
really discovered what courage is. Write an essay in which you analyze and
discuss what prevents the discussion from being successful or in which you argue
that, although unsuccessful in discovering a definition of courage, it is
successful by other criteria. It would be helpful to keep in mind that Socrates
and Plato are always interested in moral education (education in virtue) and
that often problems in discussion involve a failure to understand fully how
moral understanding develops.
- Read the dialogue Charmides and do an independent analysis of what is
accomplished or not accomplished in that dialogue, and why. You will find it
somewhat similar to the Laches, although Socrates is quite a bit younger. The
topic for discussion in that dialogue is sōphrosyne or temperance / moderation
/ self-control. He discusses first with Charmides, a handsome and promising
young man, and then with Critias, Charmides’ older cousin and guardian. The
discussion of temperance as some kind of science of sciences—critical knowledge
of what we know and don’t know—can get confusing, but the play with
over-confidence, critical response, then confusion and further discussion is
similar to the Laches.
- If you have read one of the shorter Platonic dialogues in another class, you
can critically compare the response to Socrates of Laches and Nikias with
someone like Meno, Euthyphro, Lysis, or Meletus. Keep your focus one what makes
them or prevents them from being good conversational partners in a moral inquiry
into virtue and the care of the soul.