Department of Philosophy, John Carroll University
20700 N. Park Blvd., University Heights, OH, 44118; pmooney@jcu.edu; (216) 397-4786; Administration Building, B-Wing, #B-13.  Office Hours, Fall, 2009: Monday, Wednesday, Friday 11:00-1:00

PL210, Ancient Greek Philosophy

Ancient Greek Philosophy is an in-depth study of Plato's dialogues and Aristotle's lecture notes.  The focus will be upon Socratic ethics, Platonic metaphysics and epistemology, and Aristotelian metaphysics, to the near exclusion of the pre-Socratic and the Hellenistic periods.  Perhaps the first period of philosophizing in history (at least, the first from which we have lots of extant records) the ancients offer some of the most surprising conclusions for which philosophers have ever argued.  The semester will be devoted to identifying their arguments for (and against) these conclusions.  A non-exhaustive list includes:

No one errs willingly; tyrants, rhetoricians and orators have no power; knowledge of what's good for me can never be overcome by temptations; all human desire is for the person's own best good (even if that isn't identical with what the person thinks is best for her); no harm can come to the virtuous person; there are no physical objects, but there do exist non-physical objects; knowledge is recollection.

One goal of the course is to further develop the student's sense both of what makes an argument a good argument, and of what sorts of conclusions are worth arguing for, in the first place.  Another goal is to hone the reading and writing skills  needed to personally benefit from some of the greatest intellectual documents civilization has to offer.

Course Requirements
Course requirements focus upon three tutorial papers, each based upon specific readings.  Questions to be answered in the papers are set about two weeks in advance; papers may be no longer than three pages, single-spaced; the first two papers must be accompanied by a tutorial meeting.

Tutorial meetings convene twice/semester and include myself and either two or three students.  During the 50 minute session students read and discuss with each other specific segments of their papers.

A very strong class-attendance record is also required in order to receive credit for the course.  Regular class preparation includes 25-40 difficult --> very difficult pages per week.  There are no exams.

Tentative Readings
The following dialouges (Plato) and lecture notes (Aristotle) will be read either in whole or (mostly) in part:

PLATO: Apology, Crito, Euthydemus, Gorgias, Hippias Minor, Ion, Laches, Lysis, Protragoras, Meno, Phaedo, Republic, Symposium, Theaetetus

ARISTOTLE: De Anima, Categories, De Generatione et Corruptione, On Ideas, Metaphysics, De Motu Animalium, Nicomachean Ethics, Physics, Poetics, Posterior Analytics, Prior Analytics

Books
ISBN's and LCClass #'s for the books that will be used in class (and which will be available at the JCU Bookstore), appear below.  Early translations of Plato and Aristotle have entered public domain and so are available free-of-charge on the Web.  However, students typically find professionally published hardcopies far more convenient to work with than downloads; in addition, some of the Web editions lack Stephanus and Bekker pages, making those tremendously difficult to work with.  Visit Episteme Links for access to a variety of Web editions (PHILOSOPHERS/PLATO-or-ARISTOTLE/ELECTRONIC TEXTS).  Among the best of the electronic editions is Perseus.  Students are welcome to use hardcopy editions other than those listed below.  Please be aware, though, that there will be translation differences to work around both in class and in tutorial papers.

Books used in class:
Plato: Complete Works, ed. John Cooper (Hackett) 1997.  ISBN: 0872203492; LCClass.: B 358 .C3 1997.
Aristotle: Selections, ed. Terence Irwin, Gail Fine (Hackett) 1995.  ISBN: 0915145677; LCClass.: B 407 .F56 1995.