PHI 2010: Sample Quiz on Phaedo


This quiz will provide you with a chance to test your understanding of Phaedo. The actual quiz might differ both in the style of question, and the material that is covered. Do not suppose that simply memorising the answers to this quiz will enable you to score well on the real quiz. What I suggest is that you study Phaedo, then try this quiz. Check your answers. Then go back and re-read the Phaedo, trying to understand it.

1) Which of the following is not an argument used by Socrates for the immortality of the soul

(a) The theory of recollection implies that the soul exists before birth.

(b) The soul is a spirit, that is, a gaseous, invisible substance that can pass through walls.

(c) The theory of opposites implies that just as waking leads to sleeping and sleeping to waking, death must lead to life.


2) Which of the following is used as a reason for not believing that Socrates will survive his death?

(a) A man lasts longer than the coats that he weaves, but the last coat he makes might outlast him. So too, although the soul is stronger than the body, it will eventually reach a body that lasts after it has ceased to exist.

(b) Just as water dissolves salt and fire burns up wood, thinking too much eventually wears out and destroys the soul.

(c) Since we cannot see the soul, there is probably no such thing.



3) What does Socrates compare to misanthropy (hatred of men).

(a) misogyny, hatred of women.

(b) philanthropy, love of men.

(c) misology, hatred of reason.


4) Socrates objects to the analogy of the body-soul relation to that of a musical instrument and its harmony because

(a) Different instruments have different types of harmony (e.g. major and minor keys).

(b) It conflicts with the theory of recollection.

(c) The soul is inaudible as well as being invisible.


5) Socrates argues that all beautiful things are made

(a) By skillful craftsmen.

(b) By the Beautiful.

(c) By the fact that we perceive them as beautiful.

Fill in the blanks:

Theories about the relationship between soul and body can be divided into three basic types......................................dualists think that the soul is one thing, the body another. Plato and Descartes fall into this category. Monists believe there is only one substance. Idealists, like Berkeley, think this substance is mental, whereas ........................................., like Armstrong, Searle (or Madonna) think the opposite. The third option is .............................................................., which would include philosophers like Aristotle. In the Phaedo, Socrates argues that the goal of philosophy is to prepare you...................................................... This is because through philosophy the........................attains mastery over the........................

Answers to the sample quiz.
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