
Ancient Western Philosophy (PHIL 301)
Lewis & Clark College
Spring 2025
Professor Joel A. Martinez (joel@lclark.edu)
Book Office Hours Appointments HERE
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 Greek Philosophy
Day 1 Introduction to course - What is Philosophy? What are the origins of Philosophy? In class exercise and discussion. (Identify a philosophical question, Choose favorite section of Voices of Ancient Philosophy)
Day 2 Parmenides Poem on your own. How will you find the poem? In class exercise and discussion. (Where do the ideas of Greek/Roman Philosophy come from?)
Supplementary reading: Bernard Williams "Why Philosophy Needs History"
Week 2 Sources, Doxography and the Presocratics I: The Milesians, Xenophanes
Day 1: Parmenides Poem on your own. How will you find the poem? In class exercise and discussion. (Where do the ideas of Greek/Roman Philosophy come from?)
Readings for Day 2:
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
Day 2: Are we studying the ideas of the actual people? What counts as the text? How to have fun. Begin The Milesians & Xenophanes
Week 3: Eleatics Change and Multiplicity; Being and Unity
Readings for Week 3:
a. Curd pp. 39-72
b. Shields pp. 9-20
Day 1 Continue the Milesians & Xenophanes Begin: The Presocratics II: Heraclitus,
Day 2 The Presocratics II: Parmenides
Week 4 -- Parmenides' Assault on a posteriori Knowledge and Zeno's Paradoxes
Readings:
a. Curd pp. 39-72
b. Shields pp. 9-20
Day 1 Parmenides Continued
Day 2 Parmenides, Zeno if there is time (How to read Plato)
Week 5 -- Sophists & the Challenges for Philosophy; Socrates
Readings for Day 1:
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)
Day 1 Protagoras and Plato’s Protagoras
PAPER #1 DUE FRIDAY OVER EMAIL
Readings for Day 2:
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
Day 2 What are Socrates' main philosophical contributions?
Week 6 Exam and Plato’s Project
ASSIGN Exam 1 Covering the Presocratics and Socrates
Reading for the Week: Read through Plato's Gorgias.
Day 1 Socrates in the Gorgias
Day 2 Socrates in the Gorgias
Week 7: Plato on Knowledge and Explanation
Day 1 Meno 80d-100 & Phaedo 57-90 Two Accounts of Recollection
Day 2 More on Knowledge and Recollection
Exam 1 Due
Week 8: Plato on Knowledge and Explanation
Day 1 Meno 80d-100 & Phaedo 57-90 Two Accounts of Recollection Phaedo 91-118 Forms in the Phaedo & The Hypothetical Method
Short paper #2 assigned
Day 2 Phaedo 91-118 Forms in the Phaedo & The Hypothetical Method; Shields Pp 68-82
Week 9: Plato’s Republic
Day 1 Transitioning to 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
Day 2 Transitioning to 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
Week 10: SPRING BREAK
Week 11: The Move to Virtue
Day 1 Republic 3-4 Early Education and Virtue
Short Paper #2 due, Student presentations assigned
Day 2 Republic 6-7 Higher Education
Week 12 Transitioning to Aristotle
Day 1 Plato’s Parmenides Finishing Plato, moving to Aristotle
Day 2 Parmenides (cont)
Week 13: Aristotle on Being and Nature
Day 1 Intro to Aristotle, Categories Short Paper #3 assigned
Day 2 Physics 2.1-3 Nature and the Four Causes
Week 14: Aristotle on Luck and the Automatic; Begin Happiness and Virtue
Day 1 Physics 2.4-9 Luck and the Automatic, Hypothetical Necessity
Day 2 EN Bk. 1 & 2 & 6
Week 15: Hellenistic Philosophy
Day 1 Student Presentations
Day 2 Student Presentations