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Introduction to Philosophy

Interviewing the Student About His Teacher

The Sophia Times has asked you to interview Plato, the best known student of Socrates, about the life and death in 399 B.C.E. of one of the greatest Athenian philosophers.

You need to prepare at least ten (10) questions to ask Plato during this interview. What you want to learn from Plato (since he has written about these things in his Dialogues) is information about Socrates that will help the readers of The Sophia Times learn more about this great teacher. Your readers want to understand what sort of things were important to Socrates, how he lived his life, what he was trying to teach the citizens of Athens, what sort of method he used to try to show people what they needed to know or learn, why he refused to quit teaching philosophy when doing so would save his life, why ignorance is the beginning of wisdom, how individual people could become their own philosophers, and so forth. So, you need well-developed and thoughtful questions for the interview which will prompt Plato into providing you with this information from the textbook. By the way, Socrates had a much better sense of humor than Plato did.

• First, come up with at least ten (10) questions that you want to ask when you “interview” Plato. Plato’s “answers” to the interview questions should come from only the textbook, and no other sources should be used.

• Next, write the “article” for The Sophia Times, which includes both the questions and the answers from the “interview.”

• Make sure that Plato’s “answers” make it clear to your readers how important the life, teachings, and death of Socrates were both to his own students in Athens and to people studying philosophy today.

Your “interview” should be “copy-ready” when it is submitted, which means that it follows standard American grammar rules, adheres to APA formatting and documentation, and is relatively free of misspelled words and other typographical errors.

Since this will be a “feature story” for the newspaper, your editor said that it needs to be no less than 600 words and no more than 900 words.