Tentative Course Schedule:

(Please Note: I am providing this tentative course schedule merely as a courtesy. It should not be construed as a commitment to keep strictly to the plan outlined below.

 

 

Week 1:  Introduction, Early Philosophers (The First?)

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Readings:

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a. Shields preface ix-xii &Chpt 1 pp. 1-9  

b. Curd Introduction, pp. 1-22 and pp. 31-38;

c. SEP links on Pre-Socratics and Doxography

 

8/30 Introduction to course -  Philosophy (What?) and Its Origins

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9/1 Sources, Doxography and the Presocratics I:  The Milesians, Xenophanes

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Supplementary reading:  Bernard Williams "Why Philosophy Needs History"

 

Week 2  --  Change and Multiplicity; Being and Unity

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Readings:  

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a. Curd pp. 39-72

b. Shields pp.  9-20

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9/6  The Presocratics II:  Heraclitus, Parmenides

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9/8  The Presocratics II:  Parmenides, Zeno

 

 

 

 

 

Week 3 -- Parmenides' Assault on a posteriori Knowledge and Zeno's Paradoxes

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Readings:  

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a. Curd pp. 39-72

b. Shields pp.  9-20

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9/13    Parmenides Continued

 

9/15    Parmenides and Zeno

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PAPER #1 DUE FRIDAY 9/16 OVER EMAIL

 

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Week 4 --  Sophists & the Challenges for Philosophy; Socrates

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Readings for 9/20: 

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a. Curd fragments on Protagoras pp.145-148,

b. Plato's Protagoras 309a-328d (Cooper's Collected works see syllabus or google drive week 4)

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9/20  Protagoras and Plato’s Protagoras

 

Readings for 9/22: 

a. Euthyphro, Meno 70-80d, and re-visit Protagoras reading (Elenctic method vs. Sophistic Method, Protagoras’ Conventional Morality vs. Socrates’ Revisionism, Hedonism and Ethics, Knowledge and Techne (the Skill Analogy))

b. Shields 35 -59

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9/22 What are Socrates' main philosophical contributions?

 

 

 

Week 5  Exam and Plato’s Project

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ASSIGN Exam 1  Covering the Presocratics and Socrates

 

Reading for the Week:  Read through Plato's Gorgias.

9/27  Socrates in the Gorgias

9/29  Socrates in the Gorgias

 

 

Week 6: Plato on Knowledge and Explanation

 

10/4  Meno 80d-100 & Phaedo 57-90  Two Accounts of Recollection

 

FALL BREAK

 

Week 7:  Plato on Knowledge and Explanation

 

10/11    Meno 80d-100 & Phaedo 57-90  Two Accounts of Recollection Phaedo  91-118  Forms in the Phaedo & The Hypothetical Method

 

 

10/13     Phaedo  91-118  Forms in the Phaedo & The Hypothetical Method; Shields Pp 68-82

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Week 8:  Plato’s Republic

 

10/18 Transitioning the Republic; The Forms and Western Culture. Helmut Heit, Jude Dougherty and Susan Bordo.  In class reflections and discussions. Republic 1-2 The Challenge of the Republic

 

 

10/20 Transitioning the Republic; The Forms and Western Culture. Helmut Heit, Jude Dougherty and Susan Bordo.  In class reflections and discussions. Republic 1-2 The Challenge of the Republic 

 

Short Paper #2 due

 

 

Week 9:  The Move to Virtue

 

10/25    Republic 3-4  Early Education and Virtue      

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Short Paper #2 due

 

10/27   Republic 6-7 Higher Education

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Week 10:    Transitioning to Aristotle

 

11/1 Plato’s   Parmenides  Finishing Plato, moving to Aristotle

 

11/3   Parmenides (cont)

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Week 11:   Aristotle on Being and Nature               

 

11/8   Intro to Aristotle, Categories  Short Paper #3 due

 

11/10   Physics  2.1-3  Nature and the Four Causes

 

 

 

 

Week 12:  Aristotle on Luck and the Automatic; Begin Happiness and Virtue

 

11/15  Physics 2.4-9 Luck and the Automatic, Hypothetical Necessity

 

11/17   EN Bk. 1 & 2

 

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Week 13:  Aristotle on Virtue

 

11/22   Finish Aristotle:  EN Bk 2 & 6

 

THANKSGIVING BREAK

 

Week 14:  Hellenistic Philosophy

 

11/29  TBD

 

12/1  TBD   (Term paper draft due)

 

Week 15:  Hellenistic Philosophy

 

12/6  TBD