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Essay Questions
1. Suppose someone had done you a wrong and you decided to get even by damaging his or her automobile. What would be Socrates' response to this situation in terms of justice and injustice? Discuss this in a graceful and intelligent essay.
2. Suppose that some members of your community objected to a book being taught in the local high school because some of the characters in the book use profane and lewd language, and the book portrayed violence. At the same time, there is evidence that some people in society do and say the types of things done and said by characters in the book. Should the book be taught? Discuss this in a graceful and intelligent essay, which reflects your reading of the Republic.
3. Suppose that someone in your school is teaching Karl Marx's The Communist Manifesto, and some of the patrons of your school say they want that faculty member dismissed because she must be a communist. Write a graceful and intelligent essay showing what is right or wrong with the argument outlined here.
4. Suppose that someone objects to a current type of music preferred by citizens your age, and suppose the objector argued that the music should be banned from society because of the harm it might do to your moral convictions. Support or refute the objector's argument in a graceful and intelligent essay. Your essay should reflect your reading of Plato's ideas as expressed in the Republic.
5. Suppose that someone murders a member of your family with some sort of a sharp-edged weapon; suppose that there are no witnesses to the crime. What sort of evidence might your community adduce to bring the unknown perpetrator to justice? What might that justice entail? Discuss in a graceful and intelligent essay that may reflect some of the ideas presented in the Republic.