First Essay Assignment

Write an essay of 5 or 6 pages on one of the following topics or on a topic that you propose and that your instructor approves. Regardless of topic, your essay should make ample use of the relevant texts, not only representing authors’ views accurately, but also citing and interpreting specific passages where appropriate. It should also go into as much depth and detail as an essay of 5 or 6 pages can. (Do not choose a topic on which you do not think there is a good 5- or 6-page essay to be written.) Finally, your essay should conform to the instructions provided in “Guidelines for Writing a Philosophy Essay,” and will be due in class at 6 p.m. on Tuesday, May 27.

1. Socrates claims in the Crito that he is obligated to submit to the decision of the jury that has convicted and sentenced him. What, briefly, are the main reasons Socrates supplies for this claim? Is this claim supported or undermined by Hobbes’s arguments in Leviathan? Are the relevant arguments in Leviathan sound?
2. Hobbes writes that “The fool hath said in his heart: ‘there is no such thing as justice’ ”(ch. XV). Carefully explain the fool’s view and, especially, Hobbes’s reply to it. Is his reply adequate? If not, are there better replies available, or is Hobbes’s “fool” right?
3. According to Hobbes, “whatsoever [the sovereign] doth, it can be no injury to any of his subjects, nor ought he to be by any of them accused of injustice” (ch. XVIII). How does Hobbes arrive at this view? Is his reasoning sound?