PHH 3150: Honors Greek & Roman Philosophy
Syllabus
Prof. Daniel White
See my Web page for all
Syllabi: http://wise.fau.edu/~dwhite
(Please note: this syllabus is
subject to regular updates; you should check this online version weekly.)
OFFICE HOURS: T & R 11:30-12:30; 2:00-4:00 PM, or
by appointment
Course Objectives: to provide
a critical history of philosophy from Aristotle through Boethius, including
major Greek and Roman authors in translation; to provide core knowledge in the
history of philosophy, as well as key skills in the interpretation and critical
analysis of philosophic texts; to provide perspectives on the legacy of Greek
and Roman philosophy for medieval traditions; to address questions of
knowledge, reality, and value as they have developed during a key period in the
history of world civilizations in order to enrich contemporary understanding of
world cultures and to provide critical insight into the formation of valules;
to develop skills in argumentation and expository writing.
Course Description: This course
fulfills the Wilkes Honors College
Culture, Ideas, and Values (CIV) Core requirement as well as a History (H)
credit in the philosophy concentrations. It provides intensive study of
primary sources in Greek and Roman philosophy with perspectives on both ancient
and medieval thought. Authors studied
include Plato, Aristotle, Epicurus, Lucretius, Epictetus, Sextus Empiricus, Philo Judaeus, Plotinus, Clement, Origen, Tertullian, Boethius, Al-Fārābī,
and Ibn Sīnā / Avicenna.
Issues in ontology, epistemology and value theory (including ethics and
aesthetics) will be emphasized, as well as influential perspectives on
humanity, nature, and deity.
Required Texts:
Ali Khalidi, M. Medieval
Islamic Philosophical Writings
Aristotle, De Anima, trans.
Hugh Lawson-Tancred (Penguin 0140444718)
Boethius, The Consolation of Philosophy trans. P.G. Walsh (Oxford World Classics 0192838830)
Plato, Timaeus
Plotinus, The
Enneads
Saunders, J.L, Greek
and Roman Philosophy After Aristotle
Links:
About Critias
About Timaeus
Interpreting Timaeus
Timaeus
with hypertext and concordance
Gordon Rule /WAC Writing Requirement:
6,000 Words: You will write a minimum of 6,000 words in
graded assignments composed out of class. Additional in-class writing and
drafts will be assigned as well. Essays will be graded for grammar, mechanics,
and style, as well as for overall organization, argumentation, and
philosophical content.
Assignments & Grades:
1)
A
series of reading responses focused on daily readings; quizzes; and class
participation (500 words apiece totaling at least 4,000 words) : altogether
= 60% of final grade.
2)
Final Essay,1,500 words minimum = 30% of grade: this essay must be written in two drafts; the first draft (750 words
minimum) is to be graded and discussed with me before the second draft (1,500
word minimum) is completed.
3) A class presentation of one of the works covered in class (or related material) given extemporaneously based on an outline and bibliography: 10% of final grade.
Assignments
Week 1: Aug. 26-28
T: The
Ancient Greek Background,Plato’s
Timaeus
with hypertext and concordance;
R: Plato, Timaeus, Cosmology, Theory of Knowledge, Theory of Reality,
Theory of Value (ethics and aesthetics); Marc Cohen, Plato's Cosmology
in Timaeus. Archimedes.
Week 2: Sept. 2-4
T: Plato’s Timaeus “the cosmos as an ensouled intelligent animal” (ton
kosmon zōon empsuchon ennoun—30b9c1), Classical
Astronomy; Pythagorean
Tuning; Response 1 due.
R: Aristotle on Life and Mind: De Anima.
Week 3: Sept. 9-11
T: Aristotle on Life and Mind: De Anima.
R: Aristotle on Life and Mind: De Anima. Ptolemy; Ptolemy's Cosmology; Ptolemaic Cosmology; Response 2 due.
Week 4: Sept. 16-18
T: Epicureanism,
Saunders pp. 13-15; Epicurus,,
in Saunders pp. 47-58;
R: Lucretius in Saunders pp.
15-46.
Week 5: Sept. 23-25
T: Stoicism, Saunders pp. 59-60; Early Stoic Logic, in
Saunders pp. 60-79;
R: Early Stoic Physics, in Saunders pp. 80-110; Early
Stoic Ethics, pp. 111-132.
Week 6: Sept. 30-Oct. 2
T: The
Manual of Epictetus in Saunders pp. 133-148; Cleanthes’ Hymn to Zeus, p. 149..
R: Skepticism, in
Saunders p. 151; Sextus Empiricus, Outlines
of Pyrrhonism, pp.
152-182.
Week 7: Oct. 7-9
T: Skepticism,
Lucian, The Sale of Philosophers, in Saunders pp. 183-198. Response 3-4 due: dialogue.
R: Greek Philosophy and Judaism: Philo Judaeus of
Alexandria, On the Account of the World’s
Creation Given by Moses, in Saunders, pp. 200-228.
Week 8: Oct. 14-16
T: Neoplatonism:
Plotinus, “Dialectic,” pp. 24-29;
Plotinus, First Ennead, “The Animate and Man,”
pp. 3-14; Ennead IV, 8th Tractate, “The Soul’s Descent into
the Body,” pp. 334-343.
R: Plotinus, Ennead III, 8th Tractate,
“Nature, Contemplation, and the One,” pp.
233-247; Ennead V, 1st Tractate, “The Three Initial
Hypostases,” and 2nd Tractate, “The Order and Nature of Beings
following on the First,” pp. 347-363.
Week 9: Oct. 21-23
T: Plotinus
Plotinus, Ennead V, 5th Tractate, “That Intellectual Beings are not
outside the Intellectual Principle: and on the Nature of the Good,” pp.
391-405;
R: Plotinus, 8th Tractate, “On Intellectual
Beauty,” pp. 410-424; Ennead VI, 8th Tractate, “On Free Will and the
Will of the One,” pp. 512-534. Response
5 due.
Week 10: Oct.
28-30
T: Early Christian Thought, Clement of
Alexandria, Stromata, in Saunders pp.
305-327; Origen, On First Principles, 328-342.
R: Tertullian, Prescription against Heritics, pp.
343-351;On the Soul, pp. 352-359.
Week 11: Nov. 4-6
T: Boethius,, Consolation of Philosophy;
R: Boethius,
Consolation of Philosophy Response 6 due.
Week 12: Nov. 11-13
T: Medieval
Islamic and ancient Greek Philosophy, Khalidi, Introduction & Chronology,
pp. xi-xlii. , Al-Fārābī, in
Khalidi, 1-28.
R: Al-Fārābī, Arabic
Neoplatonism, Al-Fārābī, 1-28. Drafts of final essay due.
Week 13: Nov. 18-20
T: Islamic and Greek Philosophy, Ibn
Sīnā / Avicenna, On
the Soul, in Khalidi pp. 27-58. Drafts
discussed by appointment.
R: Ibn Sīnā and medieval
Aristotelianism. Ancillary Readings: Liber
de Causis, English Translation (in progress) ; Proclus:
lilfe and works. The Qur'an Online; The
Qur'an in English (there are various other English translations listed on
the Qur’an Online cite). Response
7 due.
Week 14: Nov. 25-27 (Thanksgiving Recess Nov. 27)
T: Medieval
Jewish Philosophy: Maimonides
Guide for the Perplexed Text
Online, Part One, chs. I-III, XVII, XXXi-XXXVII, XLI-XLII, XLVI-XLVII, Part
II, Intro. and Propositions I-XXIV; Part III, I-VII: the Commentary on the Vision
of Ezekiel; for the source text see Yechezkel
- Chapter 1 - Ezekiel.
R: Maimonides
and the Hebrew assimilation of ancient Greek philosophy..
Week 15: Dec. 2-4 (Dec. 4: Reading Day)
T: Response
8 due; discussion.
Week 16: Final Exam Tues, Dec. 9th,
4:00-6:30 PM in our classroom: final papers due.