SYLLABUS FOR PHILOSOPHY 261

ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY

FALL SEMESTER, 2004 -- DR. MICHAEL R. BAUMER

MAIN CLASSROOM BLDG RM 421���TTh 4:00-5:50 pm

(This course is a Writing Across the Curriculum Course.)

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE

This course will be a general survey of ancient Greek philosophy, which was the beginning of ���Western��� (i. e., European and [non-indigenous] American) philosophy.

TEXTBOOKS

The Presocratic Philosophers, Second Edition. Kirk, Raven, and Schofield.

Plato. The Trial and Death of Socrates. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Dover Thrift Edition.

Plato. Republic. Translated by G. M. A. Grube. Hackett.

Plato. Symposium and Phaedrus. Translated by Benjamin Jowett. Dover Thrift Edition.

Aristotle. A New Aristotle Reader. Edited by J. L. Ackrill.

Aristotle. Poetics. Dover Thrift Edition.

Hellenistic Philosophy. Edited and translated by Inwood and Gerson. Hackett.

COURSEWORK

This course will consist mainly of detailed reading and analysis of the philosophical works listed in the "Topics and Assignments" below.

There will be five components of student coursework:

I.         Regular class attendance and participation.

II.        Reading assignments.

III.       For each class day, a short answer to one of the study questions for that day from the ���Topics and Assignments���. The answers should be a half-page or less in length -- they are simply to be succinct answers to the questions asked. NOTE: I will not accept these assignments late. If you must be absent, please email your assignment to assignments@merbadil.net.

IV.      Two midterm writing assignments. These should be philosophical dialogues on topics of your choice, related to central concepts in the course, to be around 1500 words in length (six typewritten pages @ 250 words / page). You are asked to submit one-paragraph topic proposals, due on Tuesday, September 21, for the first paper and Tuesday, November 9, for the second. The papers themselves will be due respectively on Tuesday, October 12, and Tuesday, November 30.

V.        In-class final exam with questions handed out two weeks in advance (date and time of exam: Tuesday, December 14, 4-6). Approximately 250-word answers to a choice of three out of ten possible essay questions. Written without notes, but with open texts. Reading the assignments, paying close attention to the study questions, and attending class regularly will be good preparations for this exam.

DESIDERATA FOR A GOOD DIALOGUE

I.         You should use good spelling and grammar.

II.        The dialogue should be unified by being addressed to some fairly well-defined question, which may or may not find resolution at the end. (The question can receive further definition or refinement in the course of the dialogue.)

III.       More than one viewpoint should be well represented.

IV.      You should try to think through the progress of the arguments prior to the actual writing.

V.        You may choose your own cast of characters and dramatic setting.

VI.      Use footnotes (or, where appropriate, more compact citations) for quotations and for important concepts derived from sources other than your own mind.

VII.     Be skeptical of what you read, see, hear, or think.

MORE ON DIALOGUES

As required by the Writing Across the Curriculum program, I will provide feedback on your writing���your use of grammar, spelling, and punctuation, and rhetorical and compositional aspects of your presentation. This feedback will be in the form of written comments, which I will be glad to discuss with you. You are free to accept or reject points of my critique as you see fit.

In recent years there has been an increase of plagiarism in student papers nationally, the result of easy downloads from the Internet. Plagiarism proper is the presentation of someone else���s writing as your own, with or without their permission. In our academic tradition this is considered academic dishonesty, and I cannot give course credit to a student who engages in this practice and consequently will give that student an ���F��� in the course.

Sometimes students do not know how to cite sources or ideas properly and simply lift text from Internet sources to prove a point. This also is not acceptable in academic work, but may not be intentionally dishonest and may be dealt with simply as a poor writing practice in need of correction. In general, any text copied word for word from another source must be placed in quotation marks and properly attributed, and any idea or piece of information derived from a specific external source must be footnoted.

Because of these problems, I will require every paper to be submitted to turnitin.com to be checked against their database for verbatim copying. I will let you know how to do this.

SCHEDULE OF CLASSES

Week Beginning	Tuesday	Thursday
August 29	Topic 1	Topic 2
September 5	Topic 3	Topic 4
September 12	Topic 5	Topic 6
September 19	Topic 7 FIRST DIALOGUE PROPOSAL DUE	Topic 8
September 26	Topic 9	Topic 10
October 3	Topic 11	Topic 12
October 10	Topic 13 FIRST DIALOGUE DUE	Topic 14
October 17	Topic 15	Topic 16
October 24	Topic 17	Topic 18
October 31	Topic 19	Topic 20
November 7	Topic 21 SECOND DIALOGUE PROPOSAL DUE	VETERANS��� DAY HOLIDAY
November 14	Topic 22	Topic 23
November 21	Topic 24	THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY
November 28	Topic 25 SECOND DIALOGUE DUE--FINAL EXAM QUESTIONS HANDED OUT	Topic 26
December 5	Topic 27	Topic 28
December 12	FINAL EXAM
December 19

TOPICS AND ASSIGNMENTS

TOPIC	ISSUE	TERMS	READING	READING QUESTIONS
1. Syllabus and course introduction.
2. Hesiod���s THEOGONY, a Greek mythological account of the origin of the universe.	How did the universe and its primary components come to be? By biological generation. Why is there grinding evil in human life? Because Zeus tricked mankind with a beautiful but deadly gift in retribution for their having stolen fire from the gods.	���Theogony���: the origin of the gods. ���Pandora���: Allgift ���Cosmogonic���: having to do with the origin of the universe.	The Presocratic Philosophers (hereafter called ���KRS���), Chapter I and Sections 1, (4), 5, 7. NOTE: READINGS IN KRS CAN BE SHORTENED BY READING ONLY THE FRAGMENTS.	What were the four first things? What did Heaven do to his children? What in turn did Kronos, at the instigation of his mother Earth, do to Heaven?
3. The Milesian philosophers���Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes.	What is the nature of the universe and how did it come to be? It coalesced by some sort of biological or physical process from a pre-existent infinite medium. Why does it undergo cyclic changes? Opposite elements are at war, but are subject to a higher justice that keeps either of them from wholly overcoming the other.	���Mil��tos���: a Greek city in Ionia (now Turkey). ���Philosophizein���: to philosophize. ���Ekleipsis���: eclipse. ���Psuch�����: soul. ���Arch�����: origin or principle. ���Stoicheion���: element, component. ���Apeiron���: infinite. ���Dik�����: justice or penalty. ���Adikia���: injustice. ���Chronos���: time.	KRS Fragments 72-85 (in Chapter II) and Fragments 94-110 (in Chapter III).	According to Aristotle, what does Thales say is the first principle? In attributing this view to Thales, what does Aristotle mean by his term ���material principle���?
4. Heraclitus of Ephesus.	How can the universe be one in the battle of opposites? The universe does not consist of the opposites themselves, but of the cycle of their changes.		KRS, Chapter VI.	What are some examples from the sayings of Heraclitus of things being both the same and different, or one and many?
5. Monism: Parmenides of Elea	How can non-being be? It cannot. Therefore all is now present, together, single, continuous.	���Pan���: all. ���Hen���: one. ���M�� eonta���: non-being, that which is not. ���Sunech��s���: continuous, together.	KRS, Chapter VIII.	What are the three ���ways of seeking���? (FF3-5)
6. Paradoxes of Motion and Plurality: Zeno of Elea. NOTE: THERE IS NO CLASS ON MEMORIAL DAY, MONDAY, MAY 26	Those who oppose Parmenides��� doctrine of the unity of all are forced into self-contradiction and absurdity.	The Stadium. The Achilles. The Arrow. The Moving Rows.	KRS, Chapter IX.	Why can���t the faster runner overtake the slower runner?
7. Empedocles and he atomists.	The principles are the Full (being) and the Void (non-being). The Full consists of imperceptibly small but indivisible bodies in motion in the Void. Thus both being and non-being exist, and their relationship accounts for the possibility of motion.		KRS, (Chapter X), Chapter 15.	According to Aristotle, what do Democritus and Leucippus say the three kinds of differences are?
8. Plato���s Apology of Socrates	Socrates��� defense speech at his trial for acts of impiety in that he supposedly worshiped gods of his own invention and corrupted the youth.	Socrates��� divine sign. Meletus, Anytus, Lycon. The Delphic oracle.Cultivation (or improvement) and corruption. Sophists. Minos, Radamanthus, Aeacus, Triptolemus. Orpheus, Musaeos, Hesiod, Homer.	Apology in Trial and Death of Socrates	According to Socrates, what were the accusations of his old accusers? What did his friend Chaerephon ask the Delphic oracle? What did the oracle reply? In what way does Socrates say that his manner of life has been a test of the oracle? As a result of having tested the oracle, what does Socrates say that he has learned about his own alleged wisdom?
9. Plato���s Phaedo, through page ST88 (our text, p. 95).	The Phaedo is the occasion of Socrates��� execution by being made to drink hemlock, a poison. Before taking the hemlock Socrates argues to his friends that his death will not be the end of him, because the soul is immortal and the true philosopher has a good destiny.	Philosophy. Soul. Body. Simple. Composite. Divine. Immortal. Process vs. State. Wisdom as knowledge. Learning as recollection. Harmony. Forms.	Phaedo through page ST88 (our text, p. 95).	According to Socrates: What is death? How will death help the philosopher achieve his aim? How are life and death analogous to waking and sleeping? Why must we have known the Equal Itself at birth? Why cannot the soul be a harmony? What is Socrates��� method of hypothesis?
10. Plato���s Phaedo from page ST88 (our text, p. 95) to end.	The existence of the Forms, such as Beauty Itself, Justice Itself, etc. is a hypothesis from which Socrates proves the immortality of the soul (actually, the other arguments also depended on this).	The rivers that flow in the interior of the earth: Stygion, Acheron, Cocytus, Pyriphlegethon. The Acherusian Lake. Tartarus. The true earth.	Phaedo from page ST88 (our text, p. 95) to end.	What does soul bring to all that it enters? Suppose that something carries an attribute A to all that it enters���what relationship, then, according to Socrates, does that thing have to attribute A?
11. Plato���s Symposium.	These speeches are the clever extemporaneous creations of witty and learned aristocrats and reflect the culture of the Greeks of that time, especially with regard to poetry, military customs, and sexual mores. Socrates��� speech: Socrates��� reiteration of what Diotima taught him about Eros, and Alcibiades��� encomium to Socrates.	Eros (erotic love) as a primordial principle (Hesiod). The heavenly and earthly Aphrodites and corresponding Eroses. The healthy and unhealthy Aphrodites and corresponding Eroses. Seeking one���s ���other half.��� Aristophanes. Diotima. Alcibiades. Potidea. Delium.	Symposium. Shortened reading: from Socrates��� speech on.	How does the speech of Pausanias reflect the interrelationship between homosexual and heterosexual love in the Athens of Socrates��� time? Why does Eros desire beauty? What do lovers do as a result of love? What effect does Socrates have on Alcibiades?
12. Republic Bk. I	Does justice make one happy? Yes, because it is the characteristic excellence of the soul. But this says only how it is related to the soul, not what it is, and questions of essence are always primary.	Friends / enemies. Stronger / weaker. Advantage / disadvantage. Virtue (excellence) / vice.	Republic Bk. I. Shortened reading: ST 336 to end. From ���While we were speaking, Thrasymachus...���	Why isn���t justice to pay your debts and tell the truth? Why isn���t justice to benefit your friends and harm your enemies? Why isn���t justice the advantage of the stronger? Why isn���t it preferable to be unjust than to be just?
13. Republic Bks. II-IV	Why is justice good as an end and not only as a means? Let us examine justice in the city and then by analogy in the soul. We won���t stand for a temperate, healthy city, so let���s examine an immoderate, diseased city that indulges in all kinds of unnecessary pleasures. It will need to go to war and thus will need guardians. The guardians will need to be like good dogs. The education of the guardians. The locus of wisdom, courage, temperance, and justice in the city. These virtues in the soul.	The ring of Gyges. Division of Labor. Luxury. Music. Gymnastics. The distinction of faculties in the soul. Wisdom. Courage. Temperance. Justice.	Republic, Bks. II-IV. Shortened reading: Book II through ST 376. To ���...let���s describe in theory how to educate our men,��� but all of Book IV.	What was the ring of Gyges? How did it enable Gyges to be situated with respect to justice? Where is wisdom in the city? Where courage? Where temperance? Where justice? How do we know that there are distinct powers or faculties in the soul? By analogy with the city, where are these virtues in the soul?
14. Republic, Bks. V-VII.	Some topics Socrates was trying to skip over: the equality of men and women guardians with respect to function, communal families, the necessity for rulers to be philosophers. Who are the true philosophers? Being, non-being, and intermediate. Correlation of these with knowing powers or faculties. The true philosophers are those who believe in the Forms. The philosopher-ruler must have knowledge of the Good. The analogy between the Good and the Sun. The divided line. The allegory of the cave. The education of the guardians revisited. Dialectic.	Being. Non-being. Intermediate. Knowledge (���Epist��m�����), ignorance, opinion (���doxa���). The divided line. The allegory of the cave.	Republic, Bks. V-VII. Shortened reading: Book V: ST 473, ���Then don���t compel me...��� to end. All or Book VI, Book VII to ST 521, ���Do you want to consider...���	Why are men and women to have the same functions, allowing for their differences with respect to child-rearing? Why are the guardians to have communal families? Why must the guardians be philosophers? What is the analogy between the Good and the Sun? Why would one kill rather than be liberated from the cave? Why is the philosopher disoriented upon returning to the cave? Why must the philosopher-king be willing to return to the cave? Why is the study of mathematics a prerequisite for philosophy? What is dialectic?
15. Republic, Bk. X.	(In Bk. IX it was shown that the philosopher-king (who is perfectly just) is far happier than the tyrant (who is perfectly unjust). The banning of poetry in Book III revisited. Poetry is nothing but image-making, and thus the poets have nothing to teach us. An invitation to debate this point. A proof of the immortality of the soul (different from the proof in the Phaedo). The myth of Er: rewards and punishments after death and the supreme importance of cultivating virtue. Not only in this life but for eternity justice is preferable to injustice.	Imitation (���mim��sis���). Imitation by means of nouns and verbs. Myth of Er. Spindle of Necessity. Whorl. The Fates: Lachesis, Clotho, and Atropos. The River of Forgetfulness.	Republic, Book X. Shortened reading: ST 608, ���Yes, but for the struggle to be good...��� to end.	On what basis is it proved that Homer was ignorant? Why does it follow from the fact that the vicious do not die from their viciousness that the soul is immortal? What life does Er see the soul of Odysseus choose? When our souls examine possible lives, what is the most important feature to investigate?
16. Aristotle���s theory of categories and of predication. (In some ways a substitute for Socrates��� and Plato���s theory of Forms.)	Some definitions: named equivocally (homonymous), named univocally (synonymous), named derivatively (paronymous), said with combination, said without combination, predicable of a subject, in a subject. (One thing is in another as subject iff the first thing is not a part of the second thing and furthermore the first thing cannot exist apart from the second thing. Different and co-ordinate genera have differentiae (differences) that are different in kind. Things said without combination are substance, quantity, quality, relative, place, time, position, state, action, and passion.	Homoymous=named equivocally. Synonymous=named univocally. Paronymous=named derivatively. Said of a subject. In a subject. The names of the ten categories: substance (���ousia���), quale (���poion���), quantum (���poson���), where (���pou���), when (���pote���), to be in a position (���keisthai���), to have (���echein���), to act (���poiein���), to suffer or experience or be acted on (���paschein���). Species (���eidos���), genus (���genos���), difference or differentia (���diaphora���).	Aristotle, Categories 1-5.	What are the definitions of ���named equivocally,��� ���named univocally,��� and ���named derivatively���?
(SECOND COLUMN ABOVE CONTINUED) Substance in the primary sense of the word is that which is neither predicated of a subject nor in a subject. In a secondary sense substances are the species and genera of primary substances. Theorems (about substance): (1) of whatever is said of a subject, both the name and the definition are predicated of that subject.(2) of whatever is in a subject sometimes the name is predicated but in no case is the definition predicated of that subject. (3) everything except primary substance is either said of primary substance as subject or in primary substance as subject. (4) Whatever is predicated of a predicate is also predicated of a subject of that predicate. (5) Whatever is in a predicate is also in the subject of that predicate. (6) if primary substances did not exist, it would be impossible for anything else to exist. (7) Of secondary substance the species is more substance than the genus, because it is closer. (8) As primary substance is related to all the others, so species is related to genus. (9) Of coordinate species none is more substance than another, and of individual substances likewise. (10) Besides primary substances only their species and genera are substances, because only they show what primary substances are. (11) substance is never in a subject, but this is true also of the differentiae of substance. (12) Everything named from a substance or a differentia is named univocally. (13) From primary substance there is no predicate. (14) every substance signifies a ���this something,��� although secondary substance signifies a ���this something��� as qualified in some way. (15) substances, among other things, have no contraries. (16) Predicates taken from substances, among other things, do not admit of degree. (17) unique mark of substance: they are receptive of opposites through change in themselves.
17. Aristotle���s theory of science or scientific knowledge (���epist��m�����)	All rational teaching and learning comes about from preinherent cognition (���gn��sis���). Demonstration (���apodeixis���) is syllogism producing knowledge. Demonstration is neither circular nor infinitely regressive. The premises of demonstration must be necessarily true. All science is of the imperishable. The premises of demonstration come from principles proper to the genus which is the subject of the science in question. Methods of reasoning are derived from ���axioms,��� and are applicable to all sciences. One cannot have opinion and scientific knowledge of the same thing.	Syllogism (derivation). Demonstration (proof). Premise. Conclusion. Principle (in our text, ���basic truth���). Axioms (What were called before Russell ���laws of thought������they could be called logical axioms). Science or scientific knowledge. Opinion.	Aristotle, Prior Analytics I, 1. Posterior Analytics Book I, Chapters 1-4, 10, 13. Book II, 19.	Explain how the example of the twinkling of the planets illustrates the distinction between knowledge of the fact and knowledge of the reasoned fact (a more literal translation would be knowledge that vs. knowledge why). (Posterior Analytics, Book I, Chapter 13.) What military metaphor does Aristotle use to describe how the universl arises in the mind from sense-perception? (Book II, Chapter 19.)
18. Aristotle���s theory of nature (���phusis���).	There are three principles of becoming���matter, form, and privation. Nature defined and the four causes operative in nature. Motion defined and the four kinds of change.	Nature (���phusis���). Change (���metabol�����). Matter (���hyl�����). Form. Agent. End. Motion (���kin��sis���). Alteration. Locomotion. Growth and diminution.	Physics I,1-2, 7-9; II, 1-3, 8-9; III, 1-2; VIII,6,10.	How many principles of becoming are there? What is nature? What are the kinds of cause? What is motion? How many kinds of change are there and how many kinds of motion? What is continuity?
19. Aristotle���s theory of soul	The soul is the form of a body potentially having life. Life encompasses a number of functions arranged in an ascending order in which each level includes the preceding levels: vegetative, animal, and rational. Theory of sensation. Theory of mind.	Soul. Nutrition. Reproduction. Sensation. Locomotion. Thought. Potential and actual intellect.	On the Soul, II, 1-6, 8, III, 1-8.	(This is a difficult question.) How do you think, on Aristotle���s view, soul makes something alive?
20. Aristotle���s science of being qua being.	The foundational discipline is the science of nature if nothing but nature exists, but if there exists some substance outside of nature, then there must be a science more inclusive than that of nature, and that will be the science of being as being. It belongs to this science to study the axioms of logic, such as the principle of contradiction. This principle can be neither proved nor refuted, whereas its denial can be refuted.	Wisdom, the science possessed by the gods, the science of being qua being, or first philosophy.	Metaphysics I, 1-2, IV, 1-4, VI, 1-4.	How is the person who denies the principle of contradiction to be refuted?
21. Aristotle���s views on composite substances, gods, mathematical objects, and the Platonic Ideas.	Aristotle���s ontology: how there can be an essence of composite (natural) things, the existence of eternal divine intelligences, mathematical objects as natural objects viewed under an abstraction, denial of the existence or philosophical utility of separate mathematical objects or Platonic Ideas.	Substance as matter, form, and composite, intellect as first mover.	Metaphysics VII, 1; VIII, XII, 6-7; and XIII, 1-4.	Why must there always have been motion? (Book XII)
22. Aristotle���s ethical system.	The supreme good is happiness, which is virtuous activity in a complete life. The paradox of Solon: ���Call no one happy until he is dead.��� Virtue is a developed capacity. Virtue is divided into moral and intellectual. Moral virtue is the disposition to act in accordance with a mean between pleasure and pain.	Happiness (���eudaimonia���), virtue or excellence (���aret�����), capacity, power, or faculty (���dunamis���).	Nicomachean Ethics, Books I and II.	Why isn���t the good pleasure, honor, or wealth?
23. Aristotle���s ethical system continued.	Voluntary and involuntary action, deliberation, choice, responsibility. Intellectual virtue=wisdom and is divided into scientific knowledge, practical wisdom, and art (productive knowledge).	Voluntary. Compulsion. Deliberation. Choice. Responsibility. Scientific knowledge. Contemplation. Practical wisdom. Art.	Nicomachean Ethics, Books III and VI.	What is choice and how is it related to deliberation?
24. Aristotle���s political theory.	The family, the village, and the city (���polis���). The relationships that bind the household: husband-wife, parent-child, master-slave. Criticism of the constitution of Plato���s Republic. Definition of citizen.	Constitution. Citizen.	Politics I, 1-2, II, 1-6, III, 1-5	What is a citizen?
25. Aristotle���s theory of poetry.	Poetry is a kind of imitation, or making of appearances. Tragedy is the complete realization of the possibilities of poetry. The elements of tragedy are plot, character, thought, style of language, song, and ���spectacle.��� The tragic effect is to evoke and purge feelings of pity and fear.	Imitation (���mim��sis���). Means. Object. Manner. Epic. Drama. Tragedy. Comedy.	Poetics 1-9.	What are the three ways in which kinds of imitation differ? (Chapter 1)
26. Epicureanism.	Based on atomism, an ethical system that holds that happiness is pleasure and the absence of pain, that the soul is mortal, and that the gods are indifferent to human life..		Hellenistic Philosophy, pp. 3-62.
27. Stoic Logic and Physics.	God is the universe and is rational and good. All things occur of necessity.		Hellenistic Philosophy, pp. 112-126, 139-161.
28. Stoic Ethics and Scepticism.	Virtue is the harmonization of the soul with God. ���Academic��� skepticism: nothing can be known. Methodological skepticism: every argument can be refuted.		Hellenistic Philosophy, pp. 112-126, 139-161, 203-232. Hellenistic Philosophy, pp. 302-325.

OFFICE DATA

Office Location: Rhodes Tower 1920

Office Phone: 687-3902.

Office Hours: Tuesday and Thursday, 2:30-3:30.

assignments@merbadil.net

This course meets the following criteria for the Writing Across the Curriculum General Education requirement:

1. Students must be required to write a minimum of 2,000 words in writing assignments.

2. The required writing must be in at least two separate assignments or drafts. The instructor should give feedback to assist the student in preparing subsequent papers or drafts of papers. This must include feedback on the writing. It should not consist entirely of mechanical correction of punctuation and grammar.

3. In order to receive a C or better in this course, the student must write at a satisfactory skill level (C or better). If the student's writing is weak, but shows understanding of the course material, the student may be assigned a D, in which case WAC credit will not be received for the course.

4. Maximum enrollment for this course is 35 or 45 with a graduate assistant.