Reed College
Reed College

Humanities 110

Introduction to the Humanities

Paper Topics | Fall 2003 | Paper 4

Due Date; Saturday, December 6th, 2003, 5 p.m. in the Faculty mailboxes in Eliot.
Choose one question. Length: 5 - 6 pages.

  1. In the Rhetoric, Aristotle defines rhetoric as the art of persuasion. For Aristotle, the proper task of rhetoric is logos, the appeal to reason or logic. The other two key features of the rhetorician's art are

    1. ethos: the use of claims about a speaker's moral character to gain the trust of the audience. The province of ethos is the speaker’s wisdom, virtue, and goodwill.
    2. pathos: "Creating a certain disposition in the audience" (Rhetoric 1356a, 1377b). Pathos is an emotional appeal that secures the goodwill of the hearer

    Focusing on one passage in Pericles’ "Funeral Oration," analyze the strengths and weakness of Pericles’ art of persuasion (Thucydides II. 34-46).

  2. In Crito 50a-54d, Socrates presents two arguments to show that it would be wrong for him to escape. The arguments are based on two models of the citizen’s relationship to the laws. On one model the citizen is to the laws as a child is to a parent. On the other model, the citizen is to the laws as a party of a contract is to another party of a contract.

    A. Carefully explain one of these arguments. Identify the argument's premises and show how the conclusion is supposed to follow from the premises.

    B. Develop in rigorous detail ONE objection to the argument. (For example, one could argue that the conclusion does not follow from the premises of the argument. Or one could argue that one of the premises is false.)

    C. Develop in rigorous detail the strongest response you think Socrates could give to your objection.

    D. Explain why you think the response is satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

  3. In Republic Book II, Glaucon renews the argument of Thrasymachus in three stages. In the second stage he plans to "argue that all who practice [justice] do so unwillingly, as something necessary, not as something good" (358c1-3). He offers the argument for this conclusion at 359b5-360d6.

    A. Present his argument, and be sure to explain how the story of the ring of Gyges illustrates a premise about human nature. Identify all of the argument's premises and show how the conclusion is supposed to follow from the premises.

    B. Develop in rigorous detail ONE objection to the argument. (For example, one could argue that the conclusion does not follow from the premises of the argument. Or one could argue that one of the premises is false.)

    C. Develop in rigorous detail the strongest response you think Glaucon could give to your objection.

    D. Explain why you think the response is satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

  4. These paper topics are designed to give you practice analyzing arguments. Using the above topics as a model, you may develop your own paper topic with the permission of your instructor.