History of
Ancient Greek
Philosophy
Course Syllabus
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PHIL
401/501
History of Ancient Greek Philosophy Course Syllabus |
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It is often said that ancient Greece is the birthplace of western philosophy. The primary objective of this course is to explore the writings and arguments of the major thinkers that compose this philosophical revolution.
Consequently, the course is both philosophical and historical. It is primarily philosophical in the sense that we will be surveying major works by the most significant thinkers in ancient Greece, attempting to understand the key components of their philosophical theories and the reasoning by which they support these theories. It is historical insofar as we will examine carefully the interrelations between the views of different thinkers and also, to the extent possible, explore the relevance of historical context to the ideas propounded by these thinkers.
The course will follow five major historical periods in ancient Greek philosophy: (1) pre-Socratic philosophy, in which a series of philosophers sought to explain the fundamental principles of reality in rational terms and to develop technical skills for succeeding in life; (2) Socrates, the central figure of ancient Greek philosophy who, although he wrote nothing, marked a decisive change from the previous development of philosophy and significantly influenced those who followed; (3) Socratesí student Plato, who gradually developed his own philosophical positions in response to his teacher; (4) Platoís student Aristotle, who labored to make philosophy scientific and systematic; and (5) the post-Aristotelian philosophical schools of skepticism, Epicureanism, and Stoicism, and the syncretistic revival of Platoís philosophy by the Neo-Platonists.
Class discussion will be a Socratically structured conversation focusing on the primary readings. Consequently, students will be expected to shoulder a significant burden of reading the primary materials and reflecting on them before class to be fully prepared to participate. While philosophical reflection is a rewarding?if not necessary?part of a full human life, it is also difficult work. Students must be prepared to make a significant investment in the texts outside of class to profit from our time spent together in class.
NOTE: This course is restricted to Philosophy
majors, minors, and graduate students. Other students interested in studying
Ancient Philosophy should register for PHIL 402 Ancient-Medieval
Philosophy.
Philosophical Knowledge
The course is primarily intended to help students cultivate a sophisticated knowledge of the general positions and arguments of the key ancient Greek philosophers, most notably Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. Students should be conversant concerning their accounts of the nature of reality, human reason and desire, learning and knowledge, political theory, and the good life, and be able to compare their views on these issues.
More broadly, I hope that students will develop an informed historical sense of the origins of western philosophy and some degree of facility in tracing the influence of ancient Greek thinkers into other historical periods of western philosophy.
Philosophical Development
This course begins with the presumption that all students?and all human beings?are philosophers, insofar as all students are concerned about basic questions of reality, knowledge, and truth. For this reason, an important objective of the course is to promote philosophical inquiry on the part of students by active interaction with significant philosophical texts and ideas. As this course is designed specifically for students with interests in philosophy, it will attempt to foster the engagement of students with the ideas and arguments advanced by ancient Greeks and to use that interaction to help students develop their own ideas.
Academic Skills
Like any philosophy course, this course is also intended to aid students in the development of specific academic skills. As a result of the work in this course, students should be able to read philosophical texts more closely and carefully, to understand those texts more fully, and to express their positions more clearly both verbally and in writing.
Required
Text and Readings
Cohen, Curd, Reeve, eds. Readings in Ancient
Greek Philosophy from Thales to Aristotle. Hackett, 1995.
Supplementary readings on reserve in Foley Center
or online
The standard grading system for the course is as
follows:
| 1. Course participation: attendance, discussion, secondary reading reports | 10% |
| 2. Discussion Board reading journal posts | 15% |
| 3. Papers (at least two) | 50% |
| 4. Comprehensive final exam | 25% |
Weighting percentages are approximate. All required work must be completed successfully in order to pass the course.
Course participation will be graded on the basis of evidence of preparation for class by completing the reading, willingness to take part in class discussion, and other broadly conceived contributions to the course. Regular attendance is an absolutely necessary to component of satisfactory course participation. I cannot overemphasize the value of discussion in class not only for my evaluation of your grasp of the material but also for your own processing of the readings and lectures. Philosophy is a written discipline, but it is also in significant ways a verbal discipline. The best way to develop and refine your understanding of the material we will read and to develop your own views is to discuss the issues. For this reason I will encourage and reward discussion. Ideally, discussion in class would be conducted on a voluntary basis, but I value including all students enough to occasionally call on those students who have not volunteered comments. You may "pass" when I call on you, but you should recognize that repeated passes will harm your participation grade.
In addition to contributing to informed discussion in class, students may engage in course participation in the following ways:
*Study and discussion groups: Willingness to plan and organize groups to discuss issues raised in class outside of class with classmates will be rewarded. Of course, youíll have to find some way to let me know about these activities.
*Secondary reading reports: I would like to develop a class-authored "annotated bibliography" of secondary materials related to our primary texts. To contribute to this you can read a secondary source (such as one listed in the Class Preparation Guide) and write a critical summary, no more than one page long. As an alternative, if you check with me beforehand you can research and locate secondary sources on your own and report on them. In either case, your report must include (1) complete bibliographic information on the source, (2) a summary of the basic points, with significant quotes where appropriate, (3) and a brief critical comment reflecting on the claims and arguments. To receive credit for these reports, they must be submitted during the course unit in which we deal with the issue covered by the secondary source. Please post any such reports to the PHIL 401/501 Course Discussion Board.
Note: If class performance and other indicators of participation are less than adequate, quizzes will be conducted, albeit with great reluctance.
A key component of the course grade, one which is closely connected to class discussion and participation, is your written record of summary and critical response to the assigned readings. For each class meeting, I ask that you write a journal entry (about one page typewritten or 300 words) on some topic covered in or raised by the readings. The reading journal should be posted on the Blackboard Discussion Board prior to the beginning of class. Strictly speaking, I will not grade the journal for content, but will look for evidence that you have read the primary texts and grappled with the philosophical issues that they raise. Reading Journal posts on the Discussion Board will be graded on a 4-point scale (with 4 as the fairly rare high point of the scale), indicating my assessment of your understanding of and work with the ideas in the text.
If used well, your Discussion Preparation Journal can provide a valuable record of ideas and reflections for papers and for the final exam. To help spur your reflection for the Discussion Preparation Journal I have compiled a Course Guide, available on the course web site, with background information and questions for each class day's reading assignments.
The papers are intended to increase your comprehension of the primary texts based on your reading, in-class lectures, and class discussion. In order to allow you to tailor your written assignments to contribute the greatest value to your course experience, I will allow you to choose how many papers to write and on what subjects, though I will require a minimum of two papers.
You will be allowed to select your paper topics from the broad historical groupings of ancient philosophy listed below with one basic restriction: that you raise and address a philosophical problem related to the primary texts. As a rule, any paper in the history of philosophy should summarize and explain the views of the relevant thinkers, and develop some critical response to those views. In order to help you focus the topic of your paper, I require that students complete an Essay Topic Approval Form before submitting any paper.
Ideally, papers should be written and submitted as soon as possible after we have covered the relevant material in class discussion, while it is still fresh in your mind. Under no circumstances will papers be accepted after the due dates specified on the class schedule. Absolutely no papers or written work will be accepted after the last class meeting.
1. Papers failing to meet reasonable standards of writing quality will be returned to students for revision prior to grading.
2. Papers must be cleanly typed and proofread, and pages must be numbered.
3. The topic you plan to address should be spelled out in an introduction, and the result of your paper clearly stated in the conclusion. The topic of your paper should be framed argumentatively; that is, you should take some position on the interpretation or assessment of the texts and ideas you discuss, and support your position with reasoned discussion in the body of your paper.
4. While you are free to consult secondary sources in the research and writing of your papers, the main purpose of the papers is to help you develop your own understanding of and perspective on the primary texts, not to report what other writers think. Use secondary materials as resources, not as substitute primary sources.
5. If you do choose to use secondary sources in the research and writing of your papers, they must be properly identified and documented in your paper. Failure to do so constitutes plagiarism, the serious academic offense of submitting someone else's work, ideas, or actual words as though they were your own. The penalty for plagiarism will be automatic assignment of a zero grade for the assignment, and may also include other consequences as a result of the Universityís academic dishonesty policy. In general, if you are in doubt about documenting a particular source that you have used, you should probably document it. If you have any questions about plagiarism do not hesitate to ask. Other forms of academic dishonesty will be dealt with in similar ways.
6. You should support your interpretations of the primary texts by reference to specific passages of those texts. Quotations that support your interpretations should be explicitly identified as such with quotation marks, and fully documented with parenthetical notes, footnotes, or endnotes.
7. If your paper is lost, you are responsible for providing a replacement copy. Always keep a disk or hard copy of any work you turn in.
Pre-Socratic philosophy paper sample topics:
What is the relationship between the Pythagorean theory of the soul and emphasis of mathematics?
How does Heraclitus attempt to solve the problem of stability and change?
Why do the Eleatics deny plurality, change, and motion despite the evidence of the senses?
How do the Pluralists attempt to respond to Eleatic monism?
Does the method of philosophy practiced by Socrates indicate that he was a Sophist?
What is the meaning of Socratesí denial of knowledge or wisdom?
What reasons does Socrates have for asserting that philosophers must be rulers?
What are the main points of Platoís "theory of forms"? What philosophical concerns motivate it?
What is the nature and function of the "prime mover" in Aristotleís metaphysics?
What is the nature of virtue according to Aristotleís Nicomachean Ethics?
What is Aristotleís theory of friendship? Why does he regard friendship as an ethical issue?
Philosophy essays are typically argumentative essays, which means that each paper written for this course should have a clearly articulated thesis that is defended within the paper body. Broadly speaking, the thesis of a philosophical essay is either interpretive or evaluative. In an interpretive argumentative essay the author seeks to explain and defend a certain reading of a philosophical text. For example, a student might argue that Plato does not mean for the reader of the Phaedo to accept any of the arguments offered in that text for the soul's immortality. In order to justify this claim, one would obviously have to appeal to the text of the dialogue to judge Plato's objectives in the text. The second sort of approach, the evaluative argumentative essay, seeks to explain and evaluate one or more of the arguments offered in a philosophical text. Using Plato's Phaedo as an example once again, one might seek to explain and defend the Likeness or Resemblance argument offered by Socrates.
Whatever approach you choose to take, you must offer reasons for the thesis you wish to establish. The mark of a well-defended thesis is attention to and response to potential criticisms. For this reason, a good argumentative essay should raise, consider, and respond to at least one substantive objection to the thesis in question. For example, if your paper advances the thesis that Socrates' argument in the Crito commits him to the view that citizens must always obey the government, you should consider how a critic of your view might respond. The objection you consider should not be a "straw man" or simplistic criticism that you easily overturn, but should the strongest possible objection you can develop.
In grading the essays for this course I will look primarily for (1) clear exposition of the views of the philosopher being discussed, with as few possible mistakes of fact; (2) awareness of and ability to reconstruct the arguments offered for those views; and (3) some measure of critical reflection on the part of the student about the quality of the arguments offered and discussion of significant related problems. The general principles of these grading standards are spelled out in the evaluation guidelines that are included with the Essay Topic Approval Form. The evaluation guideline scale is used for judging the completion and quality of the various components of the essays for this course. Students would be well advised to pay close attention to the expectations embodied in this evaluation system.
PHIL 401 History of Ancient Greek Philosophy
David H. Calhoun
Essay Evaluation Guidelines
| 1. Author provides instructor with completed "Topic Approval Form" | 0 2 |
| 2. Essay has title | 0 1 |
| 3. Author provides a "map" of the essay in the first or second paragraph | 0 2 |
| 4. Author has a thesis statement in first or second paragraph | 0 2 |
| 5. Author argues for thesis | 0 2 |
| 6. Author does this | Poorly Well
0 1 2 3 4 |
| 7. Author clearly refers to course text(s) | 0 2 |
| 8. Author clearly indicates premise(s) to which one might object | 0 1 2 |
| 9. Author explains the objection(s) | Poorly Well
0 1 2 3 |
| 10. Author responds to the objection(s) | Poorly Well
0 1 2 3 |
| 11. Author provides a summary | 0 2 |
| 12. Summary in last paragraph | 0 1 |
| 13. Paper conforms to reasonable standards of English composition | 0 1 2 |
| TOTAL | _______________ |
SCALE: 28=A+; 27=A; 26=A-; 25=B+; 24=B; 23=B; 22=B-; 21=C+; 20=C; 19=C-; 18=D+; 17=D; 16=F
The final exam will be comprehensive in the sense
that you will be asked to compare and contrast the views of the major thinkers
we study on significant philosophical issues. This might sound rather daunting,
but you will find that we will spend a good portion of our discussion time
in class noting the similarities and differences of the views Greek philosophers
held on the most important points of epistemology, metaphysics, and ethics.
Your own notes on the primary readings, including your responses to the
questions in the Class Preparation
Guide, notes from class discussion, and the Final
Exam Study Guide will be your best study resources. You will not be
expected to recall points of minute detail from any primary text. Notes
and books will not be allowed for use during the exam. The exam will be
held and the date and time specified on the schedule with exceptions granted
only in writing by the Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences.
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