ORIGINS & CONTEXT
This city was the intellectual and political center where Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle lived and taught.
ATHENS
What is the name (one word) for Socrates’ questioning technique used to test definitions and reveal contradictions?
Elenchus
In 399 BCE Socrates was charged with impiety and corrupting whom?
the youth (young people)
Plato preserved and expanded Socratic ideas in what literary form he used to teach philosophy?
Dialogues
What school did Aristotle found in Athens?
Lyceum
Name the major war during Socrates’ lifetime that intensified political instability in Athens.
PELOPONNESIAN
What is the name (one word) for Socrates’ questioning technique used to test definitions and reveal contradictions?
He asks follow-up questions
What poisonous plant did Socrates drink as his method of execution?
HEMLOCK
In the Allegory of the Cave, prisoners mistake shadows for _______.
reality (or “the real world”)
What logical structure with two premises and a conclusion is associated with Aristotle?
Syllogism
Who wrote comedic plays mocking Socrates, including Clouds, showing him as a strange thinker?
ARISTOPHANES
According to the classroom connection, what two skills does the Socratic method model for students?
evidence and logical reasoning
In Plato’s Crito, Socrates gives a civic reason for refusing to escape: he says escaping would violate what?
The laws of Athens
According to Plato, who should ideally rule the city in his ideal state (two-word phrase)
philosopher-king
Name one of Aristotle’s “four causes”
Material cause; Formal cause; Efficient cause; Final cause
Aristotle was born in Stagira but later tutored a famous Macedonian—name that pupil.
ALEXANDER THE GREAT
Name one type of Socratic question from the provided toolkit used to examine assumptions.
Clarifying question
In Plato’s Apology, Socrates compares himself to a “gadfly” and argues his questioning is a form of what for the city?
a public service (or “a gadfly” awakening the city — civic challenge to complacency)
Name the three parts of the soul in Plato’s tripartite model
Reason, Spirit, Appetite
Define the “Golden Mean” in one sentence.
The Golden Mean is virtue as the balanced middle between extremes
The form of government practiced in Athens that allowed citizens to speak and vote directly is called what?
DIRECT DEMOCRACY
Explain briefly why Socrates’ method aims to expose contradictions rather than “win” an argument.
Because the goal is clearer thinking and more accurate definitions; exposing contradictions shows that beliefs need revision to reach truth
Briefly state one reason why many Athenians found Socrates controversial
He publicly questioned respected leaders and exposed weak reasoning, which embarrassed or threatened elites; or his influence on youth and challenge to traditions looked dangerous in a tense political climate.
Explain how Plato distinguishes knowledge from opinion in one or two sentences.
Knowledge is based on reason and unchanging Forms; opinion is based on senses and appearances
Explain Aristotle’s concepts of potentiality and actuality using the acorn-to-oak example in one or two sentences.
The acorn has the potentiality to become an oak (what it could be); the mature oak is the actuality (what it becomes when fully realized).