Phil 3151: Ancient Philosophy

University of Minnesota, Morris
Professor Collier

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.

Required Texts:

Plato: Parmenides
Plato: Theaetetus
Plato: Phaedrus
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 (*)
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 (*)
Stoics on Fate (IG 179-190)

Plato's Epistemology

Theaetetus 151d-168c

Plato's Epistemology II

Theaetetus 168d-186e

FIRST EXAM

Skepticism I

Aristocles: Peri Philosophias 758cd (IG 299-300)
Diogenes Laertius: Life of Pyrrho 9.61-73, 9.78-82 (IG 285-288, 289-290)
Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism 1.40-112 (IG 325-332)

Skepticism II

Diogenes Laiertius 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 1.12-30 (IG 304-308)
Sextus Empiricus: Against the Mathematicians 8.479-481 (IG 316-317)
Sextus Empiricus: Outlines of Pyrrhonism1.210-212 (IG 309) and 216-235 (IG 310-314)
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

Phaedrus

Plato's Ethics II

Gorgias 451d-481b

Plato's Ethics III

Gorgias 481c-508a; Protagoras 351b-358d

Aristotle's Ethics

Nichomachean Ethics, Book II.1-9 (*); Book III.6-7 and Book VII.1-3 (*)

Epicurean Ethics

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

Epicurean Ethics II

Cicero: On Moral Ends, Book II (*)

SECOND EXAM

Stoic Ethics

Diogenes Laiertius 7.85-89, 102-109 (IG 191-192, 195-197)
Cicero: On Moral Ends, Book III §16-26 (IG 236-239)
Epictetus: The Encheiridion §1-31 (*)

Moral Skepticism

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

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, 13-15 (*)

THIRD EXAM

Paper Presentations