PHI 234AA: Plato

SYLLABUS:

• PHI 234AA Plato -- Available in Fall 2024

PRESENTATION SCHEDULE:

• PHI 234AA, Fall 2024 - MW 10:30 - 11:45 a.m. (Sect. #) -- Available Fall 2024

COURSE NOTES:

• Reading List I: Beginning of course through Plato's Epistemology

• Reading List II: Plato's Metaphysics

• Reading List III: Plato's Ethics through the end of the course

• A List and Chronology of Plato's writings

• Socrates' Life in Context: Key events in his life (from Dr. Freeland)

• Diogenes Laertius on Socrates: Some Interesting Things about Socrates' Life

• Plato's Life in Context: Key events in his life (from Dr. Freeland)

• Diogenes Laertius on Plato: Some Interesting Things about Plato's Life

• Different Interpretations of Plato's Work

• Evidence from Aristotle and Alexander of Plato's "Argument from the Sciences" in favor of the Forms

• What Forms Are There? My list of Forms from Plato's Dialogues (and elsewhere)

PAPER ASSIGNMENTS (and ABBREVIATION GUIDE FOR GRADING):

• First Paper Assignment -- Available when Dr. Y announces in class.

• Second Paper Assignment -- Available when Dr. Y announces in class.

• Third Paper Assignment -- Available when Dr. Y announces in class.

• Grading Legend -- Explanations for the abbreviations on your graded papers

ADVICE ON WRITING PAPERS:

• Dr. Y's Checklist for Philosophy Papers

• Writing Philosophy 234AA Papers

• Dr. Y's Good Paper Sample

• Dr. Y's Bad Paper Sample

• Dr. Y's Grammar Corner

• Dr. Y's Example of a Poor Introduction to your Paper (and why it is poor)

• How to cite passages in your papers

PRESENTATION GUIDELINES AND EXAMPLES:

• General Guidelines on the Elements of a Presentation for PHI 234AA

• PHI 234AA, 1st Example of a Presentation: Evidence of Socrates from Plato's Writings

ARTICLE SUMMARY GUIDELINES:

• PHI 234AA Passage Summary Guidelines

• This is a template of how to write the first Passage Summary

• Article Summary Grading Scale(s)

OPTIONAL COURSE MATERIAL (Only Look at and/or Print This Stuff If You're Interested in It):

• Why Philosophy is Valuable, Getting a Career in Philosophy, Philosophy Major Salaries, and otherwise Intelligent People Who Bash (or Have Bashed) Philosophy and/or Philosophers

• Dr. Y's "The Importance of Philosophy: Why does philosophy matter? Why bother with it?"

• Dr. Y's List of Fallacies -- A whole bunch of fallacies: Don't commit these and point them out when others do!

• Optional Plato Material

• Some Greek Words That are Useful to Know in Interpreting Plato's Works

• Plato: "Knowledge Versus Opinion" Chart

• Plato: Sun Simile and Divided Line Chart

• A Detailed Chart of Plato's Cave Allegory

• A Graphic of Plato's Metaphysics

• Plato's Dialogues on Audio CD or mp3! -- Click on "Texts and Audio Downloads" to see the dialogues available

• See what a "book" looked like in Plato's day. Cool.

• The Perseus Project -- This huge database shows you the English and the Greek of Plato (and many other Greek authors) [Click on the triangle next to "Plato" for a long list of dialogues]

• Optional Aristotle Material

• Passages from Plotinus -- Readings from a Neo-Platonist who believes that Plato is right, for comparison

• Optional Extra Credit Assignment -- Available when Dr. Y announces in class.