Phil 3151: Ancient Philosophy

Professor Collier
Spring 2015

Raphael: The School of Athens (1509-1510)

Course Description: This course serves as a broad survey of Ancient Philosophy. Topics include: happiness, knowledge, logic/metaphysics, virtue, fatalism, relativism, skepticism, friendship, emotions, and tragedy.

Course Requirements: Three exams (15% each), paper (25%), and participation (30%).

Required Texts:

Plato: Parmenides
Plato: Meno
Plato: Theaetetus
Plato: Gorgias
Cicero: On Academic Skepticism
Inwood and Gerson: Hellenistic Philosophy

(*) = available on Moodle

Class Schedule

Presocratics

"Heraclitean Fragments"(*)
"Parmenides' Poem" (*)

Plato's Metaphysics

Symposium 209e-212a (*)
Republic 596d-597e (*)
Parmenides 126a-132b

Plato's Metaphysics II

Parmenides 132c-135d

Aristotle's Metaphysics

Metaphysics Book Four, 3-4 (*)

Aristotle's Metaphysics II

De Interpretatione 9 (*)
Stoics on Fate (IG 179-190)

Plato's Epistemology

Meno

Plato's Epistemology II

Theaetetus 151d-168c

Plato's Epistemology III

Theaetetus 168d-186e

First Exam

Pyrrhonian Skepticism

Diogenes Laertius: Life of Pyrrho 9.61-81 and 88-95 (IG 285-290 and 291-294)
Aristocles: Peri Philosophias 758cd (IG 299-300)
Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.40-99 (IG 325-331), 2.18-20 (IG 320-321), 1.210-212 (IG 309), and 1.216-219 (IG 310-311)

Academic Skepticism I

Diagenes Laiertius 7.46-47 and 7.50-51 (IG 112-114)
Cicero: Academica Book Two, Lucullus's Speech (§17-27, §31, §79-82, and §106-107)
Aenisedemus: Photius Bibliotheca 169b (IG 300-301)
Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.226-235 (IG 313-314)
Cicero: Academica Book Two, Lucullus's Speech (§32-36)
Diogenes Laertius 9.102-108 (IG 295-297)
Cicero: Academica Book Two, Lucullus's Speech (§28-29)
Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.13-24 (IG 304-307)
Sextus Empiricus: Against the Mathematicians 8.479-481 (IG 316-17)

Academic Skepticism II

Diogenes Laiertius and Numenius: Selections (IG 261-266)
Cicero: Academica Book Two, Lucullus's Speech (§40-61)
Cicero: Academica Book Two, Cicero's Speech (§64-68, §83-105 and §141)

Taoist Epistemology

Zhuangzi (*)

Plato's Ethics

Gorgias: "Encomium of Helen"(*)
Gorgias 447a-481b

Plato's Ethics II

Gorgias 482c-499b

Plato's Ethics III

Gorgias 499c-508a, 517a-522e
Republic 436a-444a (*)

Aristotle's Ethics

Nichomachean Ethics, Book II (*)

Aristotle's Ethics II

Nichomachean Ethics, Book II.6-12 and Book VII.1-3 (*)

Epicurean Ethics

"Letter to Menoeceus" (IG 28-31)
Principal Doctrines (IG 32-36)
Cicero: On Moral Ends, Book One §11-15, §23-61, §65-72 (*)

Epicurean Ethics II

Cicero: On Moral Ends, Book Two (*)

Second Exam

Stoic Ethics

Background to Stoic Ethics: Diogenes Laiertius 7.84-109 (IG 190-197) and 7.127-131 (IG 201-203)
Cicero: On Moral Ends, Book Three §16-34 and §62-79 (IG 236-242)
Seneca: "On Philosophy and Friendship"(*)

Stoic Ethics II

Diogenes Laiertius: 7.110-118 (IG 197-199)
Cicero: Tusculan Disputations, Book Four §9-25, 34-42, 44-46, 56-57, 58-76, 80-84 (*)

Stoic Ethics III

Aristotle: Rhetoric, II.2 (*)
Cicero: Tusculan Disputations, Book Four §43, 48-55, 77-79 (*)
Seneca: On Anger, Book One §1-14, Book Two §1-4 and §10 (*)
Seneca: Medea monologues (*)

Moral Skepticism

Diogenes Laertius: Life of Pyrrho 9.83 (IG 290) and 9.101 (IG 295)
Sextus Empiricus Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.145-163 (IG 336-337) and 3.179-197 (IG 390-393)
Sextus Empiricus: Against the Mathematicians 11.160-166 (IG 396-397)
Annas and Barnes: "Customs and Persuasions" (*)

Plato's Philosophy of Art

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

Aristotle on Tragedy

Rhetoric II. 1, 5, 8 (*)
Poetics 4, 6-11, 13-15 (*)

Third Exam