Blog Bonus! Compare what Protagoras has to say about punishment (324a; p. 19) with Foucault.

Examine the argument that justice is the same kind of thing as piety (330c-331b; pp. 25-26). Are the premises true? Are the conclusions valid?

P1: Justice is some thing, not no thing.
P2: Justice itself is a thing.
P3: Justice itself is a just kind of thing.
P4: No one virtue is the same kind of thing as any other.

C1: Piety is not a just kind of thing.
C2: Piety is an unjust kind of thing.

Who offers the better interpretation of Simonides' poem, Protagoras or Socrates?

Or is Socrates right to say that differences of interpretation cannot be settled (347e)?

Is pleasure the good?

Is Socrates right to explain weakness of will as ignorance (355b & ff; p. 52)?

Does Socrates succeed in demonstrating that courage is a kind of wisdom?

Does the dialogue clarify whether virtue is teachable?

Is "Protagoras" a good example of the superiority of dialogue over monologue in philosophy?

Apply an insight from Foucault to the subject of punishment in Sophocles' "Antigone."

Does Foucault intend something more than a grisly example of early modern punishment by his account of Damiens' execution (pp. 337-339)?

According to Foucault, why is there "a shame in punishing" (p. 343) in modern justice?

What does it mean that punishment has become "an economy of suspended rights (p. 344)?"

According to Foucault, how does the concept of power-knowledge affect one's view of punishment?

What does Foucault mean when he says:

"The soul is the effect & instrument of a political anatomy; the soul is the prison of the body (p.359)?"

Is Foucault correct in asserting that we must "rid ourselves of the illusion that penalty is above all...a means of reducing crime?"

Do you think that the modern system of punishment illustrates Foucault's observation that:

"the body becomes a useful force only if it is both a productive body & a subjected body."