Philosophy 115g



Philosophy 115g. Greek Society Professor Frank Lewis

and Culture. MHP 201, X05172

Spring, 2011, TuTh 2:00-3:15 email: flewis@usc.edu

Classroom: SGM 124.

Office Hours: Tu 1:00-2:00, Th 1:00-2:00, 3:15-4:15,

and by appointment

T.A’s: Ben Lennertz, Aness Webster,

Geoff Georgi.

Focus on the literary achievement from the beginning of Greek literature to the fourth century with a special emphasis on the Greek philosophers.

Our aim will be to develop an understanding of the writings of the Greek philosophers in philosophical terms, but in a way that is also faithful to the broader literary and historical context.

Topics Covered.

Note that some details on the syllabus that follows are tentative: corrections will be issued as necessary. I will announce in class before we move from one topic to the next: please do listen out for these announcements of our progress.

1. Homer Iliad and Odyssey, Hesiod Works and Days, Theogony. The traditional background in mythology and religion; the "oral tradition" in poetry.

2. Some earliest cosmologies (the Milesian philosophers of nature: Thales, Anaximander, Anaximenes); Heraclitus of Ephesus. Readings: CCR, pp. 1-14, 24-34.

3. The sceptical reaction, and some replies. Parmenides and Zeno; Empedocles and Democritus. Readings: CCR, pp. 35-41, 47-69.

4. A new social/intellectual phenomenon: the Greek Sophists, esp. Protagoras, Gorgias, and Antiphon. Readings: CCR, pp. 74-81.

5. Socrates I. Plato Apology; Aristophanes Clouds. More on the cultural/political background: the Greek Sophists, and the contrast with Socrates; the satirical portrait by the comic playwright, Aristophanes, and Plato's counter. Readings: Apology (complete), in CCR.

6. Socrates II. Plato Euthyphro. The typical ingredients of Socratic inquiry. The charges brought aginst Socrates; Socrates's overt response in the Apology; the encounter with Euthyphro ("Mr. Rightminded") and the covert response in the Euthyphro. Readings: Euthyphro (complete), in CCR.

7. Socrates III. Plato, Laches (complete; in Saunders). The Laches is a characteristic Socratic dialogue, investigating the question, What is courage?, with the aid of two historical characters, the Athenian generals, Laches and Nicias. The answer to Socrates's question identifies virtue as a kind of knowledge. --For more on Nicias, see #8 below.

8. Discussion of the contemporary historian, Thucydides, and his History, where the circumstances of Nicias's death are famously described. We will also discuss Thucydides for his assessment of Athenian political life, and for some real-life cases of the influence of the Sophistic point of view in contemporary Athenian politics: selections from the History Books I (66-88 [the Congress at Sparta] and 139-146 [Pericles's assessment]); II (34-46 [the Funeral Speech] and 59-65 [Pericles's defence of his policies after the plague]); III (36-50 [the Mitylenian debate]; V (84 - end [the Melian dialogue]).

9. Plato I. Meno. Begins as yet another "Socratic" dialogue, on the familiar question, Can virtue be taught?; but the dialogue soon turns into a crisis for Socratic inquiry. Meno's Paradox. Plato's answer: the theory of recollection. We might also ask how, when Socrates returns to his original question about virtue at the end of the dialogue, his approach is (or is not) affected by the intervening material on recollection. Readings: Plato, Meno complete (in CCR).

10. Plato II. Phaedo. Elaboration of the theory of recollection, in conjunction with the Platonic theory of forms. Other topics of interest in the dialogue include Socrates's intellectual autobiography; and his inquiry into causes and the application of his results to the theory of forms, and to his arguments for the immortality of the soul. Readings: CCR, selections (TBA).

11. Plato III. Republic, Books I, II. III, IV. More encounters between Socrates and the "sophistic" point of view. Sneak preview of a Platonic answer to Socrates's questions about morality in the remaining books of the Republic. Readings: CCR, pp. 253-310.

12. Plato IV. Readings: Plato, Republic V, 471c - VII, 534e, the philosopher, knowledge and its objects; CCR, pp. 333-388.

13. Plato VI. Readings: Plato, Parmenides (to 135c); CCR, pp. 432-441.

14. Aristotle I. The early anti-Platonism of Aristotle. Readings: Aristotle, Categories 1 - 5, CCR, pp. 484-490.

15. Aristotle II. Aristotle on nature and natural explanation. Aristotelian forms. Readings: Aristotle, Physics B1, 3, 7, 8, 9, CCR, pp. 530-533, 535-7, 543-547.

16. Conclusions.

Readings. Readings for the course will include: selected Presocratic philosophers, and assorted Sophists, Protagoras, Gorgias, and Antiphon (in CCR [see below]); Aristophanes, Clouds; selections from The Peloponnesian War by Thucydides, in the reader by Paul Woodruff (Hackett Press); and selected dialogues of Plato and selections from Aristotle (also in CCR). With only a few exceptions (in particular, the ten Books of the Republic), we will read the works of Plato in their entirety.

Textbooks.

Required: S. Marc Cohen, Patricia Curd, and C. D. C. Reeve, eds. Readings in Ancient Greek Philosophy(= CCR). Hackett (paperback).

Trevor Saunders, ed. Early Socratic Dialogues. Penguin (paperback).

Course Requirements. You will be asked to write a total of 12 - 15 pages of work in essay form during the semester; exact assignments, together with due dates and general topics, will be announced in class. There will also be a final exam: you will be asked to write one or two one-page essays, with possible topics to be announced a week in advance.

The grade for the class will be assigned as follows: 60 % for work in essays; 10% for the final exam; and 30 % for participation etc. in Sections.

Other junk. Withdrawals:

Westminster;

The last day to drop without a mark of "W" is January 31. The last day to drop with a mark of "W" is April 10.

Incompletes. Incompletes will be awarded only in the case of serious personal emergency – no exceptions! Class Evaluations. Class evaluations will be conducted at the next-to-last regularly scheduled class.

Plagiarism. Don’t! If you run out of time or effort, much better to take a poor grade than an automatic “F”!

SPECIAL NOTE: please always keep your own (hard) copy of any work handed in. USC instructors NEVER lose anything; but their students sometimes claim otherwise, and we need to be protected against every eventuality.

Yes, there will also be required readings for each class session. Details will be announced as we "find our pace" in working through the material. You are responsible for knowing what is to be read before a given class session, and for having the reading done in proper time. This is the only way I know for getting away from class-long lectures, and putting our time instead into -- much more rewarding -- classroom discussion!

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