Plato/How does Plato distinguish and justify his distinction between genuine

knowledge and right opinion?
Paper details:

The exam has two questions. Answer both questions.

1. (Two pages, 50 points) How does Plato distinguish and justify his distinction between genuine

knowledge and right opinion? In your answer discuss the three major approaches which Plato takes to

this question:

a. psychological: based on the structure of the rational soul

b. epistemological: based on the establishment of standards of truth and knowledge

c. metaphysical: based on a theory of reality

To answer question (1) you should rely on your lecture notes, the Plato lecture (pdf), Plato’s allegory of

the Cave, and Plato’s Divided Line. All of the latter material is on iLearn.

2. (Two pages, 50 points) Question 2 has two parts. Answer both parts.

(2a) In your own opinion, how do you understand the relationship between psychology, epistemology

and metaphysics? (2b) Can the question “what can we know?” be answered apart from considering the

questions “what is the structure of the mind?” and “what is most real in the universe”?

Formatting instructions and deductions

• Name, student ID, class hour in the header (Please, please, please learn to insert a proper

header. Don’t just type this information at the “top” of the page.)

• 1 inch margins on all sides

• Page numbers in the header

• Text double spaced

• 12 point, standard font

10 point deduction for each violation of the above

Grammar deductions

1 point for each grammatical error

Page length

10 point deduction for page length violation. Two pages means two full pages. No more, no less.

Quotations

10 point deduction per quote exceeding ten words. I prefer that you not quote at all but put the

text into your own words. If you do quote be sure to cite the quote in the manner appropriate to your

discipline. If you don’t have a discipline yet, select a citation style of your choice (APA, MLA,

Turabian, Chicago). If applicable, for Plato quotations or when you refer to passages of Plato give the

Stephanus page numbers as well in parentheses. For instance,

Plato thinks that blah, blah, blah (510c)