What is knowledge?

ASSIGNMENT: As reported in Plato’s account, The Apology, Socrates famously claimed at his trial that “The unexamined life is not worth living.” In this course, you have had the opportunity to examine your own life and reality through the thoughts of the Ancient Greek philosophers. The purpose of this Touchstone assignment is for you to reflect on how these philosophical ideas have impacted your thinking and will continue to influence your life.

For this Touchstone, you will write a 1-2 page (approximately 300-600 words) reflection essay applying what you’ve learned about philosophers and how it relates to you and reflecting on the meaning and benefits of thinking philosophically in your own life. You will use the Greek Philosophers as support for the reflection essay.

A. Directions
Step 1: Select Question
Now that you understand and have described the three main branches of philosophy, you will focus on one of the three questions presented in Touchstone 1.1. Use this as a starting point to guide your personal philosophical reflection. The questions are:

What is knowledge?
What is the nature of reality?
What is the good life, and how ought I live it?
Step 2: Philosophical Reflection
The purpose of this Touchstone is to apply what you’ve learned about philosophy and the Greek philosophers to refine your own philosophical thinking now and in the future. This assignment is more open-ended than Touchstone 1.1 but should include reflections on the following items:

What does it mean to think philosophically? How can thinking philosophically help me in my own life?
Choose one of the three questions to include in your reflection. (“What is knowledge?”; “What is the nature of reality?”; “What is the good life?”). Then select an appropriate Greek philosopher to support how you have answered this question in your own life. Use cited examples from the course to support your answer.
What impact do the ideas of the Ancient Greek philosophers have on my own perspectives and convictions? Use cited examples from the course to support your answer.
This assignment should be approximately 1-2 pages (300-600 words). You should write at least one paragraph for each of the three prompts listed above.

In answering these reflection questions, draw from your own experiences while relating specific Ancient Greek philosophers and their arguments to your chosen reflection question. Please note: Some philosophers will be more suited for particular questions than others.

EXAMPLE Epictetus has a lot to say about “What is the good life and how ought I live it?” while not saying much about knowledge or reality. Plato and Aristotle wrote a great deal about all three questions.
When citing material from a tutorial, please include the name of the lesson and use the following format for in-text citations:

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