Ancient Philosophy

This course offers a broad survey of Ancient Philosophy. Topics include: happiness, beauty, virtue, fatalism, relativism, taoism, hedonism, skepticism, friendship, emotions, and tragedy.

Plato: Theaetetus

Plato: Gorgias

Plato: Meno

Cicero: On Academic Skepticism

Inwood and Gerson: Hellenistic Philosophy

Presocratics

"Heraclitean Fragments"(*)

"Parmenides' Poem" (*)

Plato's Metaphysics

Symposium 209e-212a (*)

Parmenides 126a-132b

Plato's Metaphysics II

Parmenides 132c-135d

Aristotle's Metaphysics

Metaphysics Book IV, 3-4 (*)

Aristotle's Metaphysics II

De Interpretatione 9 (*)

Cicero: On Fate §28-30 and §39-40 (IG 182-183 and 186-188)

Plato's Epistemology I

Meno 70a-86c (*)

Plato's Epistemology II

Meno 86c-end (*)

Plato's Epistemology III

Theaetetus 145c-168c

FIRST EXAM

Plato's Epistemology IV

Theaetetus 168d-183c

Skepticism I

Aristocles: Peri Philosophias 758cd (IG 299-300)

Diogenes Laertius: Life of Pyrrho §61-69, §78-82 (IG 285-287, 289-290)

Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism §79-99 (IG 329-331), §210-212 (IG 309), §216-219 (IG 310-11), §210-212 (IG 309) and §216 (IG 310-11)

Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.145-163 and Diogenes IX: 83-4 (*)

Sextus Empiricus: Against the Mathematicians §59-100, §123-141, and §152-191 (IG 365-368, 369-373)

Skepticism II

Diogenes Laertius 7.46-54 (IG 112-114)

Academica Book Two sections §17-31, §40-42, §47-58, §79-98

Skepticism III

Diogenes Laertius: Life of Pyrrho 9.74-76 (IG 288-289) and 9.102-108 (IG 295-297)

Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism 3.280-281 (IG 316)

Sextus Empiricus: Against the Mathematicians 8.479-481 (IG 316-317)

Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.21-24 (IG 306-307) and 1.220-235 (IG 311-314)

Sextus Empiricus: Against the Mathematicians 7.166-189 (IG 277-280)

Cicero: Academica Book Two, sections §32-39, §43-44, §99-110

Taoist Epistemology

Zhuangzi (*)

Plato's Ethics I

Gorgias 447a-481b

Plato's Ethics II

Gorgias 481c-508a

Aristotle's Ethics

Nicomachean Ethics, Book II.1-9, Book III.6-9

SECOND EXAM

Epicurean Ethics

Epicurus: Letter to Menoeceus (IG 28-31)

Cicero: On Moral Ends, Book I §13-15, §23-61, §65-72 (*)

Epicurean Ethics II

Cicero: On Moral Ends, Book II (*)

Stoic Ethics

Epictetus: The Encheiridion §1-31 (*)

Skeptical Ethics

Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism 3.179-182 (IG 390)

Sextus Empiricus: Against the Ethicists 11.110-167 (*)

Stoics on Emotions

Diogenes Laiertius: 7.110-118 (IG 197-199)

Cicero: Tusculan Disputations, Book IV §8-38, 58-84 (*)

Anger [Class Debate]

Cicero: Tusculan Disputations, Book IV §39-47 (*)

Seneca: On Anger I.7-9, 12-14, 17-18; II.1-4, 6-10, 28 (*)

Plato's Philosophy of Art

Republic, Book X, 595a-608b (*)

Aristotle on Tragedy

Rhetoric II. 8 (*)

Poetics 4, 6-11, 13-14 (*)

FINAL PAPER PRESENTATIONS

THIRD EXAM