This discussion guide is designed to help you prepare for a discussion potentially leading to writing a commentary paper.  You should follow the outline below and use the other students in this class to help you think about and write a commentary that will earn bonus points. (Use the back of this sheet if you need to.)

1. (10 minutes) Write out a question about his ideal society that you would like to ask Socrates and that you think would produce a good discussion about our dreams of perfection and our nightmares about reality. Think about the relationship between Socrates (and Plato's) method, using dialogue as a means to discover the truth, and his views of what constitutes the ideal society.



2. (10 minutes) Write the answer that you think Socrates might give to the question you asked. You are free here, of course, to have Socrates ask one or more questions of you, thereby helping you to answer your own question.



3. (15 minutes) Introduce yourself to the students in your group and share your questions and responses with the rest of the group. Spend a bit of time talking with each other about each of the questions to see where they lead you.

4. (10 minutes)  Select questions and responses you would like to have the instructor discuss that you think might produce good class discussion and interesting commentaries. Then discuss that question and response with each other. You should make a few notes on a separate sheet about what you say to each other so you can share your thinking, and Socrates', with the rest of the class.

5. (5 minutes) Report your groups question(s) and responses to the rest of the class. Turn in this sheet with your groups question(s) and the names of the rest of your group written in the spaces provided.

OUR QUESTION IS:



SOCRATES RESPONSE IS:



The members of group #______were:

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________

_________________________________________________