Reed College
Reed College

Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Paper Topics | Spring 2017 | Paper 1

Paper Due: Saturday, February 11, at 5:00 PM in your conference leader's Eliot Hall mailbox
Length: 6-8 pages (1500-2000 words)

Choose one of the following questions:

  1. Antigone (441) and Medea (431) were written roughly ten years apart, both featuring as their main characters women who speak and act out of place. How do the effects of Sophocles' and Euripides' uses of their main characters differ, that is, how might an Athenian audience have responded differently to Medea than they might have responded to Antigone? Base your argument in a close reading of both texts.

  2. How might Plato assess the Clouds’ portrait of the ideal Socratic philosopher? Your response should be grounded in a close reading of the Cloudsand of The Trail and Death of Socrates or the Republic.

  3. How does the Republicattempt to establish that women should guard and rule in the kallipolis? In answering the question, do the following:

    1. Present Plato’s argument to the conclusion that women should guard and rule in the kallipolis by both quoting the text and explaining the text in your own words.

    2. Develop one powerful objection to Plato’s argument. Indicate which particular premise or inference the objection calls into question.

    3. Offer Plato’s reply, once again attempting to ground the reply in a close reading of the text.

    4. Offer a brief assessment of where things stand for Plato after the objection and response.

  4. In the Apology, Socrates tells the audience “to pay no attention to my manner of speech—be it better or worse—but to concentrate your attention on whether what I say is just or not, for the excellence of a judge lies in this, as that of a speaker lies in telling the truth” (p. 21, line 18a). Keeping Socrates’ advice in mind, analyze Medea’s use of rhetoric in Euripides’ play. Is Medea a rational or a passionate speaker? How can you assess as reader/judge when she is telling the truth? Is her “manner of speech” relevant for how you read her? Ultimately, is what Socrates proposes—that is, separating manner of speech from the assessment of its justness/honesty—possible?

  5. In The Clouds, Aristophanes uses mockery and sarcasm to ridicule Socrates and criticize intellectualism in general. What is Aristophanes suggesting regarding the relation between, on the one hand, truth, knowledge, and factual evidence; and, on the other hand, relativism, ignorance and opinions?

  6. Write your own essay topic. If you choose this option, it is necessary to have your conference leader approve your topic before you start working on it.