PH 201 HISTORY OF GREEK AND MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Time: MWF 0900-0950
Place: Carroll Hall 410
Instructor: Professor Richter
Office: Carroll Hall 417
Phone: 464-7735 (office), 463-2421 (home)
E-mail: richterdj@vmi.edu
Text: Daniel Kolak and Garrett Thomson (eds) The Longman Standard History of Philosophy Pearson Longman, 2006.
Requirements
Grades will be based on the following:
30% -- the best 6 from 7 tests in class, each worth 5% of the total grade. Tests will include a couple of short questions and an essay.
20% -- one 2000-word paper on a subject of your choice. In this paper, you must first copy out one paragraph from the assigned reading for the course with a single sentence that you disagree with in bold. The rest of the paper should explain the context and meaning of the bolded sentence, why the philosopher wrote it, and why the reader should disagree with it.
10% -- written answers to study questions from the textbook. You may choose which questions you answer, but must answer at least three for each part of the course (only two in the last part of the course though). Your answers are due before the test at the end of each part. Each answer is worth 0.5% of your final grade
30% -- a final examination covering the entire course
10% -- class participation
Goals:
All academic study in the West began with philosophy. Our religious and political institutions and beliefs have been greatly influenced by philosophical ideas from the time of the Ancient Greeks to the present. Proper understanding of contemporary debates about ethics, psychology, religion and science is only possible with an understanding of the origins of these debates. Philosophy’s insistence on critical thinking and its enduring interest in ethics make it of perpetual value. The purposes of this course are to study the history of some of the most important ideas in western civilization, and to encourage students to think critically about these ideas and to form their own informed and well-reasoned opinions about them.
Syllabus
Part One: The Presocratics
Possible test essay questions: 1. What is philosophy?, 2. Does Democritus prove that Parmenides is wrong about change being impossible?, 3. Is man the measure of all things?
W Aug 30 Introduction to the course.
F Sep 01 The Milesians: Thales and Anaximander. Read pp. 9-19.
M Sep 04 The Ionians: Pythagoras and Heraclitus. Read pp. 19-26.
W Sep 06 The Eleatics: Parmenides and Zeno. Read pp. 26-35.
F Sep 08 The Atomists and the Sophists: Democritus and Protagoras. Read pp. 35-44.
M Sep 11 Test
Part Two: Socrates
Possible test essay questions: 1. Is the unexamined life worth living?, 2. Is it always wrong to break the law?, 3. Does Socrates prove that there is life after death?
W Sep 13 Video: The Trial of Socrates
F Sep 15 Euthyphro. Read pp. 46-60.
M Sep 18 Apology. Read pp. 60-77.
W Sep 20 Crito. Read pp. 77-86.
F Sep 22 Phaedo. Read pp. 92-106.
M Sep 25 Test
Part Three: Plato
Possible test essay questions: 1. Is it good to be good?, 2. Is Plato’s imagined republic ideal?, 3. Are there platonic Forms?
W Sep 27 Video: Plato’s Republic.
F Sep 29 Republic Books II and III. Read pp. 106-117.
M Oct 02 Republic Book IV. Read pp. 117-128.
W Oct 04 Republic Books V and VI. Read pp. 128-144.
F Oct 06 Republic Book VII. Read pp. 144-151.
M Oct 09 Test
Possible test essay questions: 1. Is Aristotle’s conception of the soul better than Plato’s?, 2. Can ethics be scientific?, 3. Which are more important, intellectual or moral virtues?
W Oct 11 Video: Aristotle’s Ethics.
F Oct 13 On the Soul. Read pp. 200-208.
M Oct 16 Nicomachean Ethics Books I and II. Read pp. 208-225.
W Oct 18 Nicomachean Ethics Books VI and VII. Read pp. 225-233.
F Oct 20 Nicomachean Ethics Book X. Read pp. 233-242.
M Oct 23 Test
Possible test essay questions: 1. Is pleasure the ultimate good?, 2. Is it rational to fear death?, 3. Can we ever really know anything?
W Oct 25 Video: Emperor and Slave.
F Oct 27 Epicureanism: Epicurus. Read pp. 244-253.
M Oct 30 Epicureanism: Lucretius. Read pp. 253-257.
W Nov 01 Stoicism: Epictetus. Read pp. 257-265.
F Nov 03 Skepticism: Sextus Empiricus. Read pp. 265-271.
M Nov 06 Test
Possible test essay questions: 1. What is evil?, 2. Does Anselm prove that God exists?, 3. Does Aquinas prove that God exists?
W Nov 08 Video: Does God Exist?.
F Nov 10 No Class
M Nov 13 Augustine. Read p. 273 and pp. 286-301.
W Nov 15 Anselm. Read pp. 308-312.
F Nov 17 Augustine and Thomas Aquinas on the mind. Read pp. 301-308 and 313-16.
M Nov 20 Aquinas on God. Read pp. 337-339.
THANKSGIVING FURLOUGH
W Nov 29 Test
Part Seven: Islamic, Jewish, and Late Medieval Philosophy
Possible test essay questions: 1. Does Avicenna prove that the soul is immortal?, 2. Explain the relation between universals and particulars., 3. What is the relation between faith and reason?
F Dec 01 Video: Muslims. Extra-credit papers and re-writes due.
M Dec 04 Avicenna (Ibn Sina). Read pp. 342-354.
T Dec 05 Averroës (Muhammad Ibn-Rushd). Read pp. 355-365.
W Dec 06 Maimonides (Moses Ben Maimon) and William of Ockham. Read pp. 365-382.
F Dec 08 Test
M Dec 11 Review
Much abridged versions of some classic works can be found here.
There are much fuller notes, and some good links, on ancient Greek philosophy here.