Assignment

In the second half of the Crito, Socrates tries to develop an answer to the following questions. What is the basis of our obligation to obey the law? Why think the obligation to obey is sufficiently strong that Socrates should accept the punishment even if he is innocent of any crime? The account he develops starts on page 50 in the margin and ends on page 54. Explain the basic ideas in Socrates' answers, including his account of the nature of justice. What is the basis of the agreement that he has formed with the state to obey its laws? What is the point of the comparison between the relationship between parents and children, on the one hand, and the state and citizens, on the other hand? What reasons does Socrates give for thinking that his obligation to obey the laws of the state is more important than the reasons he has for escaping and preserving his own life?

In the Nichomachean Ethics, Aristotle develops an account of virtue based on the idea that such traits of character and thought are means between two extremes. Explain how this account of virtue works, and then apply it to his account of justice.

Revise your dialogue maps of the main questions each are trying to answer, along with the answers and the reasons that Plato and Aristotle each give. Integrate the two maps into one single map that contains both sides of the argument. Be sure to identify each point as a question, answer or reason pro or con. Explain each point in a clear sentence. Spell out the links between the points in a manner that clarifies how the inquiry is structured as an argument. The lower and upper limits on the number of nodes in your map is 15-20, and the entire map needs to be fitted onto one page. If it doesn't fit, then edit it. This will force you to make judgment calls about which points are really most important.

Second, in 3 1/2 (minimum) to 4 (maximum) typed page(s), explain their respective accounts of virtue how the accounts apply to the case of justice. Locate a point of disagreement between the two. Take a stand on that disagreement and argument for one side and against the other. Focus on clarity and coherence of each sentence, paragraph, and the page as a whole. Work slowly and carefully as you identify each of the main premisses and then put them in an order that makes the best sense of the argument as a whole.

My suggestion is that use the dialogue map to develop an outline of the paper before writing the first draft. I also recommend that you spend about one page reconstructing each argument, and then the remaining space clarifying the point of dispute and your thesis along with your argument for that theses and responses to potential objections.