Flowchart: Alternate Process: 1. Introduction: Ancient conceptions of philosophy and modern approaches to ancient philosophy. a. How did the ancients conceive philosophy? Philosophy as a way of life vs. philosophy as a discipline of study. Three ancient approaches to philosophy: Socratic oral cross-examinations, Platonic written dialogues and Aristotle’s treatises. Competing ways of wisdom: poets, priests, rhetoricians, craftsmen, sophists and politicians. b. What should we expect to learn from ancient texts? Ancient Greek texts are original source of philosophical problems and starting point of ongoing philosophical debates. c. How should we read ancient philosophical texts? (What is special about ancient texts? How to read philosophy?) Discussion of the main specific difficulties in ancient texts: chronological issues, stylistic issues, transmission issues. Different approaches to Plato’s dialogues: developmentalists (common view), unitarians and esoterists. Some considerations about how we’ll read the Platonic dialogues: attention to the characters, but mainly attention to the arguments. Basic notions about how to make and how to evaluate an argument. Exercise.– Some models of argument: Basic deductive arguments, Socratic inductive reasonings and the Socratic method of refutation. Analysis of some passages from early Platonic dialogues identifying the premises and the conclusions of the Socratic arguments and assessing how strongly the premises support the conclusions. (Handout 1) Reading: (There are no readings scheduled for the first session, but it would be convenient to start reading Apology and Alcibiades from Plato's volume in order to acquire some familiarity with Socrates' style.) Important terms: interpretation, argument, thesis, premise, conclusion, fallacy, deduction, valid, sound, generalization, induction, refutation, counterexample, reductio ad absurdum, ad hominem argument, … back to PHL202 Schedule Home

PHL202 H5S   Ancient Philosophy

 

 

Warning: This page does not correspond to any actual course. I've only built it as a proposal for my instructorship application.

 

 

Warning: This page does not correspond to any actual course. I've only built it as a proposal for my instructorship application.